When you were a child, did people ask you what you wanted to be when you grew up? And what did you answer? Is what you are now what you planned to be then?
And if I asked you what is the primary thing that God wants his children to be what would your answer be? Perhaps loving, good, serving, a people who live God’s way?
At the time described in The Gospel of John chapter 17, Jesus had just spent the best part of 3 years working hard with his disciples. He had taught them about God in words and by the way he lived. They had seen the power and wisdom, love and goodness, holiness and purity of God in Jesus day by day. And so Jesus himself had become their purpose and direction in life. Jesus presence with them had empowered them to live as people of God. But they were still young in their faith and Jesus knew that his disciples focus and direction was still dependant upon his physical presence with them. And he knew that he would not be with them physically for much longer. He also knew that they were about to go through a time of great turmoil and testing as he was arrested, tried and crucified. And at that time they would all abandon him and each other to varying degrees. The unity and purpose they had so far experienced with him as their leader was about to disintegrate. If they were going to continue as God’s people, they needed a stronger and more permanent tie to God than simply Jesus physical presence had provided. Jesus knew his disciples each needed a mature faith in God; a faith like his.
So when Jesus and his disciples had finished their passover supper Jesus spent some time teaching to prepare his disciples for his arrest and crucifixion. Then last of all, just before they go to the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prays this prayer out loud:
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.” (All biblical quotes are from the Revised Standard Version with the ’thee’ and ’thou’ changed to you.)
Now says Jesus, the full purpose of my ministry on earth is to be revealed. And at this time, this time of crisis, the most important thing for Jesus to do was to bring glory to God through himself. Everything he had ever done as a man was leading up to this chance to glorify God with his life.
So what does glorification actually mean? What is this principal purpose of Jesus life?
A large section of our media industry is occupied with glory. Waiting rooms and homes are full of magazines and other publications that seek to display the beauty, the talents and the glory of actors, singers and other famous people. Whether it is the Woman’s’ weekly or dancing with the stars, you know the sort of thing I mean. People have an innate desire to be associated with glory, no matter how distantly.
Glory is the honour given as a result of a good opinion. So to glorify God is (in the words of author Bruce MilneMilne, B ( 1982) “Know the truth” IVP Leicester UK, p84-85.) “to pour out our beings before him in worship, thanksgiving and praise, delighting in him, blessing him; rejoicing in his truth, beauty, purity, and faithfulness; glorying in his grace, mercy, kindness and steadfast love; exulting in his sovereign freedom and boundless power; magnifying him for his majesty and glory; recognizing in him the ultimate reality, the truth of all truth, the joy of all joys, the love of all loves, Father, Son, Spirit, ever adorable Trinity.” That is glorifying God.
And through the hours and days to come, the betrayal and arrest, the trials and abandonment, the scourging and the crucifixion, through death and resurrection and ascension, Jesus purpose and prayer was that he bring God glory. Though we can all mouth words of glory, genuine glorification of God has to be lived as much as it is spoken and can only result from a clear knowledge of and experience of God himself. As John 1:18 says: “No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only [Son], who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.”
So Jesus is saying that the time has come for God to reveal himself and his nature through Jesus so that God will be given the praise and honour due to Him. As God reveals the fullness of Jesus, the glory of Jesus, Jesus glorifies God because Jesus is God. And it would be easy to think that the glorification Jesus was praying for was limited to his own life and actions if it was not for the fact that Jesus continued with:
“Since you have given him [your Son] power over all flesh [people] 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.”
Once on TV I saw an interview with a dolphin trainer. The dolphin trainer had spent many years training dolphins and he was being interviewed in front of a glass wall that looked into the tank where the dolphins he trained were swimming. As he was speaking to the camera about how intelligent and fun loving dolphins were, one of the dolphins swam up behind him. As he talked the trainer was using lots of facial expressions and hand gestures. And though the trainer did not know it, behind him the dolphin was swimming standing up and as best he could. And with his face and flippers, doing exactly the same facial expressions and hand gestures as the trainer. It was a hilarious spontaneous imitation. Clearly the dolphin new the trainer so well he knew exactly the sort of facial expression and hand expressions he would use.
Similarly Jesus knew that only those people who choose to come close to God and have a personal relationship with him can actually begin to know and understand and therefore glorify God. So eternal life is knowing God and the Christ whom God sent so we can glorify them. Not a knowledge of or about God, but knowing God in relationship with him; a personal and intimate knowledge of God himself. And God has granted Jesus the authority to give people eternal life by enabling them to know Jesus and God in intimate relationship.
So Jesus primary purpose and Jesus and God’s glory will be realized in the personal relationship between Jesus disciples and God. A Christian’s intimate and personal relationship with Jesus and God will reveal and glorify both Jesus and God.
But that is not all there is to this revelation, this glorification of God, for Jesus continues
“I glorified you on earth having accomplished the work which you gave me to do; and now Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory which I had with you before the world was made.”
You know it has always amazed me that non-Christians give such respect to Jesus and what he taught and lived. Sure they deny his divinity, and try to deny his existence or add doubts about his purity, but that they bother to go to such lengths speaks of the power of his teaching and life to affect people. Other religions are even glad to claim him as a prophet and holy teacher. There is no doubt that Jesus life brought God and himself glory.
And it would seem like here, all of a sudden, Jesus has begun to pray just for himself. With Jesus obedience to God’s plans being as good as complete, Jesus is asking for a further revelation, a greater glorification of God – one that comes only from being in the very presence of God as Jesus was before the beginning of this world. It is the revelation, the glorification of God that comes not just from being in His presence, but from being one with God as Jesus was at the beginning of this world.
But what, if anything, has this request to do with Jesus gift of eternal life to Christians and the glory they will bring to Jesus and God? Why is Jesus return to his full glory in God’s presence important for his disciples eternal life?
Jesus continued praying saying:
“I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world; your they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for I have given them the words which you gave me, and they have received them, and know in truth that I came from you, and they have believed that you did send me. I am praying for them; I am not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours;
all mine are yours, and all yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the word, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you.
Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.”
In a book I was reading recently, a King found he had an illegitimate grandson, called Fitzchilvary, abandoned on his doorstep. And after some thought he says to Fitz, I want to make a bargain with you. I will feed you and clothe you and give you a home, education and employment if you will always remain loyal to and serve me. Have we a bargain? And Fitz agrees to the bargain. And then the King takes a pin that bears his household and family emblem, a buck deer, on it and presents it to Fitz saying, “if ever you have a real problem and need to speak to me straight away, come to my door, where ever I am, and present this pin, and you will be given immediate entrance into my presence. And as a sign of his allegiance, Fitz chooses to wear the pin every day, pinned to the front inside of his shirt near his heart.
Similarly God had given Jesus to his own people; people who already knew God and were obedient to his word. And because these people already knew God, they could could recognize in Jesus one who had come from God. And because their hearts were already open to God’s teaching, they were also able to receive and believe the teaching God had given Jesus.
And it was also true that Jesus and God shared a unity that was complete in every way. All that God the Father had belonged to Jesus, and all that Jesus had belonged to God the Father. Jesus like the pin on the boy Fitz’ shirt, had taken his disciples into the very presence of God.
But now Jesus was about to leave this world without his disciples. So Jesus prays for his disciples protection, protection by the power of the name of God and the name of Jesus. Now in Hebrew thought, a name was not just an abstract title referring to a person. Instead to use the name was to call on the whole being of a person, all their essential features; the living power of a person. So it is by all the power of God himself, the power which created this universe and all that is in it, that Jesus is asking for protection of his disciples. And the protection that Jesus is asking for is that his disciples may be one with God, just as God and Jesus are one. Jesus was asking God to give his disciples permanent and intimate access to God; the same access and unity that Jesus had with God. That is the glory Jesus wanted to be returned to and the unity he wanted as the protection for his disciples.
“While I was with them, [Jesus prays] I kept them in your name, which you have given me; I have guarded them, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
But now I am coming to you; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
I have given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”
In the story of Fitz, the kings illegitimate grandson, while the king is alive, Fitz is fed and clothed and educated and employed by the king. And he is able to see the king any time he needs to by using the pin. And though his life is not without problems, it seems like Fitz will be safe. But once the king is dead, the kings youngest son tries to take the kingdom from his eldest brother, the king’s heir, and the situation changes. Now both the pin and his family resemblance to the king mark Fitz out as someone to be destroyed in the grab for the throne and all it’s power. And Jesus is concerned that his disciples will come under similar attack when he is no longer physically present with them.
Jesus had shared his knowledge of God with his disciples, and he knows that their acceptance and belief in himself and God’s word has made them people who do not belong to this world, people whom this world will reject and hate. With Jesus they had experienced the real joy of living in God’s personal presence and love. Jesus human presence with his disciples had given them unity with himself and God. And Jesus had guarded and conserved his disciples with all the power that God had given him. But in his absence they would be vulnerable to all the rejection the world could throw at them.
Yet Jesus is not asking that his disciples be removed from the world, but that they be protected from evil and Satan, protected from rejecting or losing their relationship with God. Jesus wants to make it possible for his disciples to continue being one with God in his absence so that his disciples will be protected and have the full measure of Jesus joy within them. Jesus knows the great joy in being one with God, the joy of thinking, feeling, acting and being one with God. It is a joy that is present regardless of the circumstances of life for it is founded in the love of the Father for the Son and the Son for the Father. This is the full joy Jesus wants for his disciples, the joy of being one with God.
And it is to this end that Jesus continues praying:
“Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth.”
In the story of Fitz the kings illegitimate grandson, the kings youngest son, Royal, imprisons Fitz with the intention of torturing and then executing him. And it becomes very clear that death will be the only way out for Fitz. But his friends, unable to free him or stop the torture, sneak a drug to him in his cell. It is a drug that will take him to the very brink of death and convince everyone else that he is actually dead. So he takes the drug, is seen to be dead, and buried. As soon as they can, his friends dig him up and bring him back to conciousness and life. Through this process Fitz was able to gain freedom and a new life. And here Jesus is saying that eternal life requires a similar dramatic transformation process in the life of his disciples.
Now the word sanctify means to separate or set apart, usually for some good purpose or use. It is the process by which things are purified or made holy for the service of God. God is holy and only a holy person can live in unity with God. Hence Jesus disciples must be made sanctified, made holy, if they are to be one with God. When a person IS holy, as Jesus is holy, Satan has no power over them. No matter what he does to try and damage or destroy them, God will use it for their benefit and his glory, just as Jesus death on the cross demonstrates.
As a human, Jesus sanctified himself, he set himself apart and prepared himself for God’s purposes by learning and living in submission to God’s word. Jesus willing submission to all that God had planned, including the cross, was a preparation of himself so that through him we could become truly sanctified; sanctified from the inside out; sanctified in heart and mind, soul and spirit. Jesus request for a restoration to his former glory with God was part preparing a way for us. The truth of Jesus gift to his disciples is not just that we have a free ticket to heaven when we die, but that we can take on and live in his holiness, we can be sanctified by him personally, now.
Now both Jesus as God’s word in flesh, and the Bible as God’s written word are the truth. So it is through the working of God’s word in the life of Jesus disciples that they will be sanctified; separated from evil and devoted to God; purified and consecrated to God’s service. Jesus has prepared himself so that he can give his disciple his holiness to live in, and so that they are sanctified, made holy as a he is holy. There is both the gift of sanctification and the process of sanctification. The gift of Jesus sanctification enables Jesus disciples to be one with God. The process of sanctification completes their holiness. So it is that Jesus disciples are both already holy in the sight of God and still, in this life, being made holy.
And if you have any doubts that this prayer applies to Christians today, Jesus continued praying saying:
“I do no pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, even as you, Father, are in me and I am in you, that they also may be in in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory which you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
Here Jesus is asking that all his disciples, including us would have the same unity, the same oneness of spirit, mind, heart, emotions and substance that Jesus the Son had with God the Father. It is to be remade in the image of God in the way Jesus was in the image of God. It is to be the people God created us to be. Only in that unity will we find the fullness of Jesus joy and security for our faith. Only in that unity will we both be and become holy, sanctified by God’s word.
In my younger days I went on several Scripture Union beach missions to Rosebud on the Victorian coast. And one of the people I met there was a young man, Terry, who had grown up in a very rough environment. His father was a wharfie in the days when the wharfs were run by the unions, and outside of his home he always carried a knife or gun or such, as protection.
One day at a beach mission, one of the leaders went missing. And while some of the leaders went in search of him most of us gathered to pray for his safe return and Terry was there with us. We prayed, the leader came back safely, we praised God and then we finished praying. As we stopped I realized Terry was crying. When I asked him what was wrong he said, “Nothing. It is just that God was so real here.”
Because of the love we as disciples are part of in that unity with God, the world will see that God loves Jesus disciples as much as he love Jesus, and that Jesus is God’s Son. This is the unity which will glorify Jesus and God.
“Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to behold my glory which you have given me in your love for me before the foundation of the world.”
Before the creation of this world, Jesus was with God and he was God. So for us to be with Jesus, where he is, and see his full glory, we would also need to be with God and be one with God as Jesus was. This it the door that Jesus has opened to all of his disciples , including us and he confirms this saying:
“O righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you; and they know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will make it known, that the love with which you have love me may be in them and I in them.”
Jesus’ revelation of God was founded on personal knowledge and intimate association. The essence of Jesus revelation of God lay in the love of God, which Jesus demonstrated to his disciples. Jesus purpose was to unite his disciples with his Father. Jesus wanted to include all his disciples in the inner fellowship; the enduring love of the Trinity: God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This was Jesus prayer, this was God’s prayer, this is the heart of God’s salvation: to know and love God the Father as Jesus does, to know and love Jesus as God the Father does, to live in the intimacy, knowledge and power of the Holy Spirit now and for eternity; to be as One.
And in the light of all that Jesus was praying for it is hard to know what it means that we now should do, for we always want to do something. But this is not about doing but the being with, being with God. So my response is to borrow and add to the words of a song by Misty Edwards”“Favourite One” by Misty Edwards on the album, “Always on my mind” 2005 Forerunner Music IHP and pray:
Heavenly Father in all that I do, whether it is work or play, study or rest, church or service, may I seek to be in the unity you ever saying:
Jesus, here I am your favourite one, what are you thinking what are you feeling I have to know.
Jesus, here I am your favourite one, what are you saying what are you doing I have to know.
For I, I’m after your heart, I’m after your heart, I’m after you.
For I, I’m after your heart, I’m after your heart, I’m after you.
And I’ll crown you with my love, I’ll crown you with my love.
I’ll crown you with my love, I’ll crown you with my love.
This then is the primary thing God wants his children to be:
Be as one, one with Jesus, one with God, now and for eternity.
