Glorify Your Son

You may recall that I enjoy many sports. And there are a few moments, like all good sports fans, that have lodged in my memory. One memory relates to arguably the best defensive shortstop to ever play Major League Baseball. In 1985, I recall when Ozzie hit a home run to defeat the Dodgers and continue their march to the World Series. Ozzie was inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame on his first time on the ballot, receiving 91.7% of the votes. There are many opinions about Baseball’s Hall of Fame and who belongs there. The question concerns honor. Who is worthy of the accolade and commemoration? 

The questions of honor, praise, and commemorating relate to the focus of today’s sermon, glorifying the Son. Now, when I say The Son, I hope you know that I am talking about Jesus, the Promised Savior, God the Father’s one and only Son. His words have been our focus for the past seven weeks as we’ve sought to unpack all that John 13-17 invites us to live. Here’s what Jesus has been saying in these chapters:

“I am forming you all as a new community around a New Covenant with one foundational command—love one another. All people will know you’re My disciples by observing this love. I am about to leave, but you will stay and do greater works than I have done. I will send the Spirit after I leave, and He will teach you everything. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. The ruler of this world has no power over Me. If you abide in My words and My words abide in you all, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. The disciples are to testify on My behalf, and the Spirit will also testify. He will guide you in all truth and glorify Me. Again, if you ask anything in My name, you will receive it and your joy will be made full. In the world, you will face persecution (the world hates you). The hour has come for Me to finish My work (on the cross). And, then, praying to His Father, Jesus says, I have protected those you gave Me. Now, set them apart in truth, that others may believe in Me through their word. I send them into the world, that others may believe, and the world will know You sent Me. They will have eternal life—they will know You and Your love will be in them.” 

We’ve pursued these leading ideas of love for one another, asking anything, doing greater works than Jesus, the Spirit teaching you, abiding in Jesus and His words, being sanctified in the truth, and being sent into the world. Today, we conclude with Jesus’ opening words in John 17, where He asks His Father to glorify His Son. Amazingly, glorifying Jesus isn’t just a privatized worship experience in the woods where I go alone and say intimate things to bring Him glory. It’s so much more. Jesus being glorified among us means that we carry out the work He's given us to accomplish. Is your life centered on glorifying Jesus? And, I’m not simply questioning your aspirations when I ask this. Are you centering on what Jesus has called you to do? It begins with centering in Him, His heart for us, and all that God intends for us to walk in. Today, then, a life reordering may be needed. After all, we have fallen short of His glory, but the offer of being made right by His grace is genuine. Today, I hope you’d center in Jesus and trust Him as your Lord and Savior. And, if He is your passion, this sermon will make your soul sing as you see what living to glorify Jesus means. Join me, then, as we see 4 steps in our progression to glorify the Son…

Read John 17:1-6 (This is God’s Word; thanks be to God)

4 steps in our progression to glorify the Son…

I. We center on Jesus, the glorious One (17:1, 4, 5) 1 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… 4I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

John helped us navigate the prayer of John 17 last week to illustrate how we’re sent to help others come to know the Father. I’m circling back to the start of 17 today to see how Jesus centers Himself in the Father. In v.1, Jesus says, “Father, the hour has come, glorify your Son that He may glorify You.” Jesus has said a lot about His hour in this section. Beginning in 12:23 and continuing until chapter 17, Jesus speaks of the hour coming nine times, with five of those instances occurring in chapter 16. This hour is coming soon. And, this hour coming shows us that Jesus’s return to glory is achieved through the cross. Completing His mission (the work His Father gave Him to do) will mean going to the cross and rising again. And, once completed, this will place Jesus in heaven enjoying the glory He had before the world existed. 

When Jesus asks the Father to glorify His Son, He’s helping followers like us to know exactly who He is and how His glory is revealed in all that He has come to do. Glorifying Jesus means honoring Him or recognizing Him. When I see the word “glory,” I think of the “heaviness” that we’re not dealing with anyone but God Himself. Glorifying the Son, then, means we center on Jesus. He’s the center of our universe. He’s the one controlling the orbit of our lives. He’s the Fountain. He’s the First Cause. He’s the Light. He’s the very embodiment of glory. Does he hold this place for you? Or is He merely an option among many that gets your attention? Sure, give Him an hour on Sunday. Surely the prayer, “Father, glorify Your Son,” gets at more than our conveniences being protected if we say something correct about Jesus. No, Jesus’ glory is life-altering for us. Has He you rocked you to your core? Glorifying the Son means centering on Him.

Secondly, another progression in glorifying Jesus comes as II. We see Jesus’s glory advances through suffering (13:31-35) 31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. 33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

You might remember this scene [in ch. 13] because this was one of the scenes I hit on before I left for my study leave. We jump back over there and begin reading in v.31 that someone called “he” had gone out. This was Judas. Imagine the context! Jesus has just told us who would betray Him. And it was now, just when Judas was about to do his work, that Jesus was glorified. He calls Himself the Son of Man, likely showing the humiliation that awaits Him. And He’s going to the cross, but the disciples aren’t called to this suffering, for where Jesus is going, we aren't able to follow. One writer speaking of this suffering and glory said, “Massive glorification occurs this Weekend—the glorification of God by his Son on the Cross, the glorification of the Son by his Father in the Resurrection, and, we may add, the glorification of the human race by this Father and Son’s deep love for and rescue of it.” Jesus’s glory advances through suffering.

And, again, in the same breath, almost anticipating the suffering that this will mean for His followers, He points to the new commandment to love one another. He says by this all people will know that we are His disciples: if we have love for one another. Again, Bruner gets at the suffering involved in loving each other like family: “The news often tells us ugly facts about the Church, particularly about her more spectacular representatives and spokespersons in the public square. And we are genuinely hurt, often embarrassed, and sometimes deeply ashamed of words and deeds that come from the Church we want to love. However, we must always remember, especially during times of public embarrassment, that there are millions of genuine Christians out there (beyond the television cameras and reporters’ notebooks). We will want to stand with and up for them, without ignoring, overlooking, or (worst of all) covering up the Church’s (and our own) clear faults, seeking all the time to repair and repent of those faults where we are responsible. Church loyalty is almost as important as loyalty to Christ himself, whose body is now the Church (one of the Apostle Paul’s contributions to Christian thought). Jesus’ New Command teaches us the duty of love for the Church in an unforgettable way. “No one can love the Head and hate the Body” (Cyprian); “No one can have God for his Father who does not have the Church for his Mother” (Calvin).

We sometimes think that, of course, I love others. Let’s not make vague what Jesus has made clear. See Him backing this up with action. He washes feet. He goes low. He offers true friendship, laying down His life for us. We would back up our love for our earthly family with action, and so let’s not settle for actionless love when it comes to Jesus’s heart for His people. God is the one who builds the unity of the church. We love one another for the sake of the watching world. There’s a mission we’ve been given that informs why we love. Are Jesus’s glory, His will for you, and the mission you’ve been given enough to invite you into the messiness of love? Jesus’s glory advances through suffering. Out of love, this glory sent Him to the cross. Out of love, it will send us to others.

Third, building on this, III. We center our love’s work in Jesus. (14:12-14) 12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

I loved how Jason connected the work that the Spirit will do to teach us to love one another. All that Jesus teaches in this Upper Room discourse informs the new commandment to love one another. Jumping to John 14:12-14, we have this assurance that believing in Jesus leads us to live, doing works consistent with the change He brings. And, we continue to do great things because He’s going to the Father. So, now, whatever we ask in His name in this life He’s given us to love, He will answer that the Father may be glorified in the Son. We ask anything and He will do it. 

Andrew Lincoln makes the formal connections for us: “Just as the Father’s works are done through Jesus, so Jesus’ works will be done through the disciples and this will be made possible through their prayers: And whatever you ask in my name I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me for anything in my name, I will do it. … The repeated assertion ‘I will do …’ makes clear that it is Jesus who will be at work in the mission of his followers, and the repeated phrase ‘in my name’ indicates that the praying that results in their works will be carried out by the disciples as the authorized representatives of Jesus. For this reason, an unconditional response is linked to such prayer. It will be answered because it will represent Jesus, who is completely in line with God’s will. The prayer of Jesus that follows in chapter 17 provides a model for what it means to pray in His name. ‘Whatever you ask,’ then, in effect, means whatever the disciples ask in line with Jesus’ prayer, because this represents what he stands for and what his mission in the world entails. The continuity of believers’ activity in prayer with the mission of Jesus is further seen in that the purpose of Jesus’ response to such praying—‘so that the Father may be glorified in the Son’—is the same as the goal of his mission.” 

I want to clear this up for you because this isn’t us asking anything, so that we can get whatever conveniences or easiness or whatever “sloppy agape.” We’re asking Jesus to work love through us. We need this in our earthly families and homes, of course. But what is primarily in view in this context is our life together in the church. Jesus is giving this instruction to His people as He is forming a new community. We are called to love others, and Jesus is helping us in this work. So, Jesus continues to think of our loving one another and assures us that anything we ask to accomplish this love for others, He will do, because His people will glorify Him when they walk this way. Glorifying Jesus means we recognize the actual value and weight of Him. The church glorifies Him by completing the work He has given us to do, which is to love one another. We center our love and the works that go with it in Jesus, and His glory is seen. 

And, all of this builds to the end of Jesus’s prayer in chapter 17, where we see that IV. We maintain God’s unity for the world. (17:22-24) 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

Jesus is praying for and uniting His people in unity, and we demonstrate this before the world, and it’s glorious. Jesus passed on the life of love we need to have to us. And He produces unity in His people (which is why the commands are to “maintain the unity of the Spirit”). Look at 17:22-23, His desire isn’t that we strive for one, but that we are perfectly one, that the world may know that the Father sent the Son and loved us even as the Son was loved. Isn’t this staggering? And, Jesus concludes desiring that these ones given to Jesus would be preserved to the end and be where He is, seeing His glory and the love He’s had from the Father from the foundation of the world. Glorifying the Son, then, in the end, isn’t some retreat into some mystical experience in isolation. It’s not verbal (something we say) or experiential (something we’re seeking to feel) but a way of life that carries out the work Jesus has given to us. Our Oneness, then, is in Jesus and the life of love He’s invited us into. This is what proves Christ to the world, convincingly. 

Some of us don’t believe that, though. We think love makes us weak, and we tried that unity thing once, but it didn’t work. It seems as if we are wanting Jesus to run the numbers to figure out the pragmatic ways His church should live, ways that work. But it’s so much simpler than that. We were invited away from our best-laid plans to the way of Christ, as fleshed out through the teachings of these disciples in the Scriptures. Living this way will showcase Jesus. Let’s maintain God’s unity for the sake of the watching world. 

In conclusion, today we’ve seen 4 steps in our progression to glorify the Son…

I. We center on Jesus, the glorious One (17:1, 4, 5)

II. We see Jesus’s glory advances through suffering (13:31-35)

III. We center our love’s work in Jesus. (14:12-14)

IV. We maintain God’s unity for the world. (17:22-24)

As we wrap this morning, the center of Jesus’ work was the suffering of the cross and His subsequent resurrection to save those far from God. This is what Jesus has done for you and me. Today, will you respond by believing in Jesus and turning from your sin and way of life? Aren’t you weary from the burning of your wheels in your own efforts to impress? Jesus offers real life. Believe in Him today. And, for those of us who have trusted Him, we’re changed and being continually resurrected by Jesus to newness of life. This new way of life comes, as Jesus has shown through loving others in this new community, which Jesus has established, the church. Will you center your life in love for Him and showcase His glory to the world? We’re drawn out to where Jesus is today. Will we press into knowing Him and making Him known? Let’s trust our Lord and live in ways that glorify and enjoy Him forever.