Jesus prays for himself

[0:00] Thank you.

[0:30] It says, if you could ask God one question, what would it be? It's a very good thought, isn't it? What is the most important thing that you would like to ask God about?

[0:41] This prayer doesn't answer that question, but it's a similar question. If you wanted to listen in to what God was talking about, if you wanted to overhear God talking within himself, what do you think that would be like?

[0:59] When you were a little child, maybe you might have overheard mum and dad talking. You might have overheard them arguing. You might have overheard them expressing their concerns about things like a mortgage, which as a little child, you have no idea what a mortgage is and why would anybody be worried about a mortgage?

[1:21] Here in this prayer, we have an opportunity to overhear the father and the son in conversation. What are they talking about?

[1:31] And if you found that when you overheard that the father and the son were talking about you, what would that be like?

[1:45] And that's part of this amazing prayer. It isn't the whole of it. It's certainly part of it. So let's just scan our eyes over this.

[1:57] It is a prayer. Chapter 17, verse 1. After Jesus said these things, so he's been talking to his disciples, those 12, 11 there.

[2:09] He looked towards heaven and prayed. So he's no longer talking to them. He's talking to his heavenly father and allowing them to overhear.

[2:21] That's deliberate. There's a benefit to them to overhear what Jesus is saying when he talks to his father. So if somebody says to you, I've been praying for you this week or I'll be praying for you next week, that's encouraging, isn't it?

[2:42] You think, oh, that's a kind thing. That's an encouraging thing. And in this prayer, we will find that Jesus says, I'm praying for you.

[2:56] We ought to be impressed. It's Jesus praying to his father. So as we come to the prayer, it's as it were treading on holy ground.

[3:10] This is not really our business, if you like. It's not really our place. To be overhearing what the father and the son are saying to one another, what the son is saying to the father.

[3:24] It's a really amazing privilege to be, as it were, invited to overhear what the son is saying to the father.

[3:35] And don't be surprised if when we overhear, just as mum and dad might have been talking about the mortgage, and you don't know what a mortgage is if you're a little child, as we overhear the father and the son in conversation together, or the things that the son is saying.

[3:56] We shouldn't be surprised if it's a different sort of agenda to the one that we might have thought of. So Jesus doesn't pray a single thing about health.

[4:07] We might well pray about our health. There's nothing about health in here, not as such. Although Jesus does pray in verse 13, I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.

[4:30] So in other words, Jesus is saying, if they overhear this, and they understand something of what's being said, it will help them to rejoice.

[4:45] There's some things that are being said that they will say, wow, I'm glad I heard that. You know, that puts a different complexion on things. That makes the day seem a brighter day, to know what the son was saying.

[4:57] I have said these things, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. Let's say another few things about this prayer.

[5:09] There's loads and loads of uses of the word give. So in the bit that we are looking at, which is going to be the first five verses, let me read.

[5:20] It says in verse 2, for you gave him authority over all people, that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.

[5:31] So it's three times the word granted is actually the word give. And in verse 4, I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. So there's give there.

[5:42] And if you were to look through, there's it in verse 6, you gave, I revealed, I have revealed your name to those you gave me. They were yours.

[5:53] You gave them to me. Verse 7, I know that everything you have given me is from them, for I gave them the words you gave me, and so on and so on. Lots of giving.

[6:04] That's an interesting thought, isn't it? Where when the father and the son are relating together, there's a lot of giving. And the father giving to the son, and the father and the son giving.

[6:17] So there's a lot of giving. And there's some things that I think are difficult for people to get their heads around. Some baffling and subtle language is going to, it was read to us.

[6:30] So for example, in verse 17, sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth. And you might think, that's not a problem. Sanctify means becoming more holy, turning from sin, and becoming more holy in a practical way.

[6:47] And then you think, well that can't be what it means, because Jesus says, I've done that to myself. Verse 19, I sanctify myself. So you think, oh well that, it must mean something a bit different to what I thought it meant.

[7:01] And Jesus uses this language of indwelling several times. For example, in verse 21, he says, you are in me, and I am in you.

[7:15] May they also be in us. And that's not language that we usually use. What does he mean by that? Well, we'll have to think about that when we come to it. And he uses the idea of being one.

[7:29] For example, it's in verse 23, may they be brought to complete unity. That he says, may they be completed in one. Well, what does that mean? What does it mean?

[7:40] Well, just flagging up, that there's things in here, that are difficult for us. And it's not really surprising, because the Father and the Son are way above us.

[7:52] It's a miracle that we understand any of it at all. It's in three sections. The first five verses, no, I didn't put that in that order. Verses 6 to 19, is Jesus praying for his disciples.

[8:06] If you've got a new international version, that heading is correct. It's praying for the disciples that were there with him, the apostolic group. Verses 20 to 26, are for those who will believe through their words.

[8:21] So that's us. That's the bit that's about us. You believe through the word of the apostles, don't you? You do? If you're a believer, that's where you got it from, from the Bible, the word of the apostles.

[8:32] And Jesus is praying for you. Praying for me. And the first five verses, which we're going to look at this morning, is Jesus, Jesus and his father.

[8:46] And you could, if you wanted a very quick description of it, is Jesus praying for himself. That's what we're going to look at. It's not all about me.

[9:00] It's not all about us. It begins with a prayer about God. Like the Lord's prayer that we prayed, it doesn't begin, Lord, give us today our daily bread, although that's perhaps what we're thinking.

[9:12] It first of all begins with a prayer for God. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. And we need humbly to take that on board.

[9:23] Although to us, we are the center of the universe and what happens to us is of prime importance. Jesus says, actually, the world is not constructed like that.

[9:33] The world is not constructed about little me in the center. It was actually constructed with God at the center. And the first lesson of the Christian life is that I am not first.

[9:47] God is first. Jesus is first. The person at the center of the throne of everything is not me, but the Father and the Lamb upon the throne.

[9:58] And the prayer begins with a prayer by Jesus, about Jesus, about glory, about the plans of the Father. So it's a very helpful thing for us to realize that's the way it is.

[10:11] So let's get into the prayer. Let me read it again. Father, the time has come.

[10:24] Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you gave him authority over all people, that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.

[10:39] Now, this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

[10:51] I have brought you glory on earth, or I have glorified you on earth by completing or finishing the work you gave me to do.

[11:02] And now, Father, glorify me alongside you or glorify me with you in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

[11:17] That's it. That's how Jesus begins. And the more I've thought about it, the more I think these verses say everything. I'm probably going to get ahead of myself.

[11:29] Let's not do that. What do we have? Let's take it a little bit at a time until we get to the end. So, it starts, it has this repeated request.

[11:44] Glorify your Son. That's there in the first verse. Jesus says that your Son may glorify you. And it's in the fifth verse. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

[12:03] So, it's a repeated request. Father, glorify me. That's what Jesus is asking for. And we'll come back to that in a moment.

[12:16] So, notice how it begins. The time has come. So, here is Jesus praying. He's spoken to his disciples at the Last Supper.

[12:27] He's on his way to being betrayed and arrested and put on trial and being nailed to the cross. That's, those are the things that are in his immediate view.

[12:40] And he prays just before all the action kicks off. And he says, Father, the hour has come. And this hour has been counting down throughout John's Gospel.

[12:54] There's the hour come. There's the hour counting down. And it's, if you, if you can find the place, if you'd like to look, you can see it counting down. The countdown begins in 2, verse 4, where at the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee, Jesus says to his mum, my hour, my time has not yet come.

[13:18] He's obviously thinking about it and thinking that she's thinking it has come, but he says, the hour has not yet come. Chapter 7, verse 8, chapter 7, verse 8, Jesus says to his brothers, the right time for me has not yet come.

[13:40] For you, any time is right. Have I got the right verse? That was in verse 6, and I've referenced verse 8. You go to the feast, I am not going up for the feast, because for me the right time has not yet come.

[13:54] Jesus is very conscious of timing. He says, the hour has not yet come, the time has not yet come. Chapter 7, verse 30, they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.

[14:07] So it's still not the right time yet. And if we go on to chapter 12, verse 19, the Pharisees have said the whole world is going after him, and some foreigners, perhaps just a couple of them, I don't know, they come up to the feast in chapter 12, verse 20, and they come to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request.

[14:33] Sir, they said, we would like to see Jesus. And the first non-Jews come in to try and seek Jesus. And Jesus seems to see this as being hugely significant.

[14:47] Jesus, Philip went to tell Andrew, Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus, and Jesus replied, the hour has come. The hour has come.

[15:01] The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. And Jesus goes on to explain it's like a seed falling into the ground and dying, and that's when it produces many more seeds, much fruit.

[15:17] The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed, but if it dies, it produces much fruit.

[15:29] And in 1231, Jesus enlarges on this and he says, now is the time for judgment on this world. Now the prince of this world will be driven out and I will be lifted up.

[15:44] So he sees the cross as being what happens at this hour. And that brings us up to 17 verse 1, where Jesus prays and says, the hour has come.

[15:59] We've been counting down to this. You know, a pregnant woman will mark off on her calendar hours, months till the baby is born, hours till the baby is born.

[16:15] Now is the hour. And this is what Jesus says as he begins his prayer, the hour has come. And it's the hour of the cross. It's the time when Jesus will be lifted up, lifted up on the cross.

[16:31] It is the center of his attention and the center of his program. That is the zero hour when Jesus dies on the cross.

[16:42] and he dies on the cross. Why does he die on the cross? I mean, people have different views over this, don't they? People say, well, he died on the cross.

[16:53] It was just a, well, I don't know. Some people say it never happened. Well, it did. Some people will say it was a tragic accident. But it isn't. It's deliberate. It's purposeful. Some people say Jesus died to set us a good example.

[17:07] Not quite sure how that works as a good example, if that's all there is to it. I mean, it is certainly an example of sacrifice which brings us to the point that it is a sacrifice.

[17:21] And Jesus has said at an earlier point, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you. And talking about eating flesh and drinking blood, which is a very gruesome thought, he's saying that blood is shed on the cross his body is broken on the cross.

[17:44] That's what it takes. That death. That's where the benefit comes. As he dies, as he bears in himself the wrath of God, as he bears our sins in his own body on the tree, that's what he does when he dies on the cross.

[18:03] That's why his blood is shed. That's why his body is broken. And unless you can take that in, unless you can eat that and drink that, you have no life in you.

[18:14] He says, that's where the life comes from. My sacrifice on the cross for sinners like you. And I can ask that question. Jesus counted down to that cross and he says, that's why I've come.

[18:27] That is the most special thing that I've come to do. And as you look at the cross, do you say, absolutely, I understand that.

[18:38] Because to me, the cross is the most precious thing. If I were to count down all the important things across history, you know, 1066, the invasion of, whatever it was the invasion of, and I can't do any other dates.

[18:54] Some of you are very good at dates. You can imagine all the dates. Would you say that the most important date of all was when Jesus died on the cross? The most important event in the whole of history is Jesus dying on the cross because that's where his blood was shed, his body was broken.

[19:12] That's where salvation was accomplished and achieved. Because it was. If you don't see it, pray to God. Everybody else around here seems to see it.

[19:25] Jesus seems to see it. Help me to see it. God's good. So we've got this time marker. The hour has come. And I've got my little picture up there.

[19:40] Now, let's see what he says next. Glorify your son that may, your son may glorify you, for you gave him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to those you have given him.

[19:56] So let's ponder that bit now. Now, there is a connecting word in verse 2 which says for. Have you got a connecting word in your Bible?

[20:09] Has anybody got a different connecting word than for? Since. Okay. Since. Since. In the original it says just as and that's a favorite word in John and it means that there's some sort of correspondence between the first thing and the second thing.

[20:30] So, for, since, just as. There's a correspondence between the time, the hour has come, glorify your son that your son may glorify you, just as you gave him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to those you have given him.

[20:49] So there's a correspondence. And just bear that in mind. Let's try and unpack the second, this second part then. So, as I said, there's the word give.

[21:01] There's a giving of authority over all flesh, it says literally all people, that he, that's Jesus, might give eternal life to all those you, the Father, have given him.

[21:18] Let's try and take that to pieces. So I haven't got a, what do you call it, animation today because my computer wasn't feeling very animating.

[21:29] So we've just got everything there in one go. So here are all the people, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da, that's all flesh. And what has the Father given the Son regarding all flesh?

[21:46] What does it say? authority. How many people does Jesus have authority over, according to verse 2? All. He has authority over all people, all flesh. And where did this authority come from?

[22:06] From the Father. Okay, so what I've got here, so there's the Father, and he's giving to the Son the blue line, that's authority over all flesh. Okay. Now what's he going to do with this authority?

[22:22] Remember I said this is like the story of everything in a nutshell, and it is, really. This is the story of everything. There are some other people mentioned. Not the same as all people.

[22:43] These people, it says, are given to Jesus by the Father. That's what the sentence says, isn't it?

[22:55] You've given him authority over all people, so that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. So there's a smaller group of people. So I've done those in red. And these are people that the Father has given to the Son. So I'll put a red arrow of the Father giving the Son these people.

[23:23] Jesus is not specific at this point when this giving took place, but it certainly did take place. It's some sort of arrangement between the Father and the Son. It's certainly prior to them receiving eternal life. It's something that's done before they receive eternal life. And Jesus says he gives eternal life. So there's an arrow from the Son to these people. He gives eternal life to those the Father has given him. So does Jesus give eternal life to everybody? No. Does Jesus give eternal life to some? Yes.

[24:09] Which of the Son to whom he gives eternal life? Answer, those the Father has given him. And how did the Father decide who to give to his Son? We don't know. It doesn't say.

[24:27] Only the Father knows that, or at least we're not told. You gave authority over all flesh. That's given to the Son from the Father. In other places, Jesus says, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.

[24:46] So he rules everything. Everyone. And his purpose in doing so is to give eternal life to some people. Jesus knows who they are. We don't know. We're told to work on the assumption it could be anybody.

[25:01] And to make the offers of Jesus Christ far and wide. But there are those people. These people are those given to the Son by the Father.

[25:19] You see, we tread on holy ground. I don't think we would have dared make this up. And there's all sorts of questions that we might ask. That Jesus says, well, you wouldn't expect to understand all of that, would you?

[25:32] But this, as far as it's clear, we take it and we receive it. And hopefully we receive it with some measure of joy.

[25:45] Let's just put it in terms of questions. Is Jesus' authority limited? Is he sort of standing back and waiting for other things to happen? The answer is no. He has authority over all flesh.

[25:57] Does he give eternal life to everyone? The answer is no. Who decides those to whom he gives eternal life? The answer to that is it is the Father's gift. It's in the Father's gift.

[26:08] So let's just turn this back on ourselves. Are you a Christian today? If you're a Christian, does it ever concern you and baffle you to think, why does God love me?

[26:24] Do you ever look and you think, the things I end up thinking and saying and doing and the way I end up feeling about things, how could God love somebody like me?

[26:40] If he looked at me and said, was that rather a nice person or not a nice person? I think God would say, that's not a very nice person. How could God love me? And we can go along that line.

[26:52] So we think, well, perhaps God doesn't love me or can't love me. I mean, I can't see why he should. But there's a huge encouragement in this that God never said.

[27:05] He never said, I'm going to look and find out who are the really nice ones. Of course, there aren't any really nice ones. It doesn't work like that. We're all sinners. God said, back sometime beyond our understanding.

[27:20] You know, if you'd like to think of it in eternity past, you can do that. The Bible doesn't use that expression. But if you want to, you think of it. Back beyond our bit of the universe.

[27:32] The father said, this one, I'm going to give that one to you, Jesus. And that one, I'm going to give that one to you, Jesus. And that one, I'm going to give that one to you, Jesus.

[27:42] And that one, I'm going to give that one to you, Jesus. And they're going to be so surprised. And they'll wonder why I did it. And they think I made a mistake. But I haven't made a mistake. I'm going to do this.

[27:53] and Jesus I want you to die for these people and I'm going to give you the task that every single one I've given you you die for them, you forgive their sins and you bring them safe to glory you raise them up at the last day and don't lose a single one and Jesus says I will do that and that's you if you're a believer and you might think why did God do that and you might well think that but don't let your bafflement become unbelief let your bafflement become wonder and praise and thanksgiving that God could ever be so kind to me and why me that God could ever be so kind to me as to give me to his son and his son to die for me and make such promises and wrap me up in such a wonderful plan and purpose which will not fail are you a Christian and you wonder what God thinks about you and the answer is

[29:02] God says I've always had you in mind you might wonder why God says that's my business this is my choice it wasn't conditional it was a choice that was unconditional and you might be thinking well I can't cope with all this well Jesus just bear in mind what we're doing we're overhearing the son talking to the father about eternal things just take what he says and believe it and put the questions on one side okay let's go a little bit further so what is Jesus doing with this with these people who are given to him throughout John's gospel there's different answers to that question but the way Jesus puts it here is this to give eternal life to those you have given him the ultimate goal is eternal life that's what Jesus gives now let's think about what he means by eternal life now I remember watching now what was it the golden voyage of Sinbad anybody ever seen the golden voyage of Sinbad with little thank you very much little monsters this is before computer generated graphics this was when when all the monsters had to be made out of plasticine and photographed one movement at a time was Harry

[30:30] Harry Ray Harryhausen did it yes so they're really clunky monsters like that and lizards that you see actually that's a real lizard but they've superimposed a very tiny Sinbad on the same picture there we go why on earth am I talking about this I know because there was a quest Sinbad was on a quest to find something like the elixir of eternal life and if you if you went into this fountain or took this medicine you lived forever okay so if you if you if you were the bad queen I can't remember what was the bad queen's name anybody no he doesn't know if she were to get there first and drink this medicine she would live forever she'd just be a bad queen for longer now is that what eternal life is is it is it just making our lives longer and the answer is no Jesus says that's not what eternal life means it's not just unending existence he says this is eternal life verse 3 that they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent so it's not just length it's relationship it's not the sort of knowledge we're talking about here is not knowing a fact in John's gospel people do know things um oh I can't remember the references now uh you can know things like you know knowing it's uh five past twelve in in the afternoon or something like that it's knowing a fact but the knowing that Jesus refers to here is knowing a character knowing a person and knowing them in a way that you benefit from so I know

[32:26] Hanuel hello Hanuel it's very nice to see you again and we had the delight of having Hanuel live in our house and it was really good to get to know you and so it's nice to have a relationship like that during the week somebody faked my Facebook account I was put into alarm and consternation yeah so there was another another person pretending to be Philip Wells same picture uh yeah because they copied my picture and uh started an account and engaged people who were my friends to say will you be the face the fake Philip Wells was saying will you be my friend and people were saying yes of course I thought I was already linked to his account and so this person was picking up a a a selection of of people that I knew and he engaged one of them in a messenger conversation so this was a lady I knew from Sri Lanka and he had said hello Nicolette how are you and she replied hello Philip how are you and and she said

[33:35] I've had a baby we had a baby in March and the fake Philip Wells said oh that's very nice and she said are you coming to Sri Lanka again and he said he said yes I think I will come to Sri Lanka again and see you by the way have you got the I don't know some CDSF or something like that and she said I don't know what is CDSF and he said oh it is a fund that I'm running and I have got $100,000 so far would you like to contribute to this fund now you see you see where this is going and she said I don't think the real Philip Wells would say something like that it's not in it's not part of his character that's not the Philip Wells that I know and she stopped the conversation but you could see he was trying to get money wasn't he he or she this person was trying to get money and knowing God is that sort of knowing where we say

[34:36] I know the sort of thing that God would say I know the sort of things that he likes I know the sort of things he would ask me to trust him about it's knowing God that is what Jesus says that's what I give now the Jews claimed to know God but they did not know him Jesus says in 855 you claim to know him but you don't they didn't really know what he was like they didn't really know what he wanted they didn't really know what they could trust him on and not they got the wrong end of the stick they didn't know God but the promise of the Old Testament is that one day God will do something whereby all his people really do know him they will all know me from the least to the greatest he says it's in

[35:38] Jeremiah 31 34 no longer will people say to other of God's people I'm one of God's people you're one of God's people do you know God by the way and the person will say well I'm in this covenant but I don't actually know be like that anymore so every single Christian will be able to look at the Christian next to them and say I know God and you know God too don't you and the Christian will say I do I pray to him you pray to him sometimes we pray together and I look at Jesus the way you look at Jesus we know God and Jesus says this is what it's!

[36:22] about I'm going to the cross the hour has come so that people can have eternal life and this is eternal life to know you the one true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent and it's interesting that there are rival gods aren't they so our Muslim friends would say they know God but the God that they know if you delve down enough is not this God Jesus says this is the true God this is the real God the God who sent Jesus Christ and the Jesus Christ who died on the cross that's the true God and to know this God and to know him through Jesus Christ whom he has sent this is eternal life and that's what I give them to know Jesus in his equality do you notice he says to know the father and the son you know if you if you're really privileged you say

[37:32] I know President Obama and I know the man who changes his toilet rolls and you think what a strange combination if you said I know Mr! Obama and Mrs Obama you think yeah you really do Jesus is putting himself on the same level as God you notice that to know you and Jesus Christ whom you have sent and this is the gift we've been given and we might say well my knowledge of God is pretty flaky actually and I'm not going to disagree with!

[38:03] but what I am going to say is it is real knowledge of God and it is a knowledge in which we can grow and it is a knowledge which will one day be fulfilled because we will know as we have been known one day we will see with clarity so let's come back to the next sentence!

[38:29] which is the gift of work I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do well he's looking forward isn't he because the time when he actually says it is finished is in 1930 a very famous saying of Jesus when he dies on the cross he says it is finished so that's the moment when in this sense it is finished so he's looking ahead when he says I have completed the work I finished the work you gave me to do and if you want a posh word for it it's proleptic it's the sort of word Scottish preachers would use proleptic that's what Sinclair Ferguson says so it's looking ahead and imagining it's already happened I have finished the work and what is the nature of this work well as we've already said it's to die on the cross it's a violent death where his blood and flesh are parted your blood and your flesh are only parted when something goes seriously wrong aren't they normally your blood is well contained inside your flesh but it's only when something goes wrong that your blood and flesh part he has a violent death it's a public death when

[39:49] I am lifted up all people will see and be drawn to me it's a public death it's a substitutionary death and a sacrificial death John says earlier he is the lamb who takes away the sin of the world and this is how he does it by dying on the cross it's a troubling death at an earlier point Jesus says now my heart is troubled what shall I say father save me from this hour no it was for this very reason I came to this hour father glorify your name and it's a death in which Jesus voluntarily gives himself no one takes my life from me says Jesus I lay it down of my own accord he's like the good shepherd the hired hand runs away when the danger comes because he doesn't care for the sheep but the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep and these are all the things that Jesus has done it's not telling us to do something to smarten up to pay more attention to get up early it just says this is what he's done for us

[41:00] I says Jesus have completed the work I've done it they're indicatives meaning Jesus says I have done this and it's very important for our Christian faith it's faith in a finished work of Jesus Christ he's done it he's done the work let's look at the glory then so I've put two discs there representing if we will the son and the father and the son glorifies the father and the father glorifies the son and we're still thinking about the cross and it's so Jesus is saying the father the time has come glorify your son that your son may glorify you I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do now father glorify me in your presence with the glory

[42:02] I had with you before the world began so the work that Jesus has done and will complete glorifies God Jesus has been doing this all the way through hasn't he he glorifies God in every step he takes everything he does shows the glory of the father and when we to see glory is that a spectator would say this is how great God is isn't God a great God and we look at the life of Jesus and we say this brings glory to God isn't God a great God and Jesus asks the father in the upcoming cross to glorify him now I know that we tend to think of Jesus being glorified in his resurrection which is true we sang a hymn about that Thine be the glory risen!

[43:02] Son except the words were modernised but Jesus is actually not saying glorify me after the cross he's saying glorify me in the cross make this cross be a glorious cross make this cross be seen to be glorious and it's a curious thing isn't it because a cross is a place shame and a place of humiliation and a place of suffering and Martin Luther I believe I understand captured this when he said when you see the cross you see the place where God seems to be most absent now where's God in that his son dying there being insulted and spat on and jabbed with weapons and people nobody coming to his defence doing it all by himself where's the glory in that and Jesus says make this glorious make that cross to be the most glorious thing this world has ever seen make the foolishness of this cross actually be the wisdom of God make the weakness of this cross which seems so weak be in fact the most powerful thing that God has ever done what seems like weakness is power and what seems like foolishness is wisdom and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength and the wisdom and the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom and Jesus says make that what happens at the cross make it glorious and I ask again when you look at this cross do you see something embarrassing shameful regrettable or do you look and you say that is the most glorious thing there has ever been if I want to glory in anything let it not be in my exam results when I if I want to glory in anything may it not be in in the income that I've achieved may it not be if I want to glory in anything may it not be in my appearance if I want to glory in anything may it be in that that I glory in the cross that Jesus died for me glorify your son says Jesus that your son may glorify me and the glory begins at the cross and it goes on from there he's glorified in the resurrection and he's glorified in the ascension and he's glorified in the enthronement and

[45:53] Jesus we presume has this in view in verse 5 where he says and glorify me in your presence with the glory that I had with you before the world was I left glory to come down for those miserable sinners that I love I left glory to come down to them and now I'm coming back to you and glorify me with the glory that I that I had before the world was and actually it's that glory plus isn't it it's not just the previous glory on a rewind it's the glory of coming back to heaven with the achievement of having saved all those sinners it's glory plus isn't it and that's the prayer that Jesus prayed prayed glorify your son may that cross be glorious so that I can give glory to you says says Jesus glorify me with the glory I had with you before the world was and I asked the question did you good did

[46:59] God answer that prayer so I think the answer is yes do you heaven says yes all heaven surrounds the throne with the lamb upon it and says power and wisdom and glory and strength be to him who sits upon the throne and to the lamb all heaven says yes he did brilliantly I hope you do too you say that was brilliant what he did and can I tell you there's more to come because he hasn't quite finished his work because his work isn't actually finished in that sense until you know that the payments finished but the repercussions aren't finished he hasn't finished until each one of his given people is with him there in glory and he says you know I did that bit I'm going to do the rest of it you count on me one day you'll see my face I've prayed another prayer that these people will be with me in glory and

[48:16] God will answer that prayer that'd be fantastic wouldn't it when we see his face when we're with him when there's no more sighing or sorrow or death or tears and we'll all be there and you can say you preached on that Philip I said I did and it's right it's true isn't it let's sing together a lot of a lot of some some