Introduction: Grace be to you and peace, from God our Father, and from our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. Our text is Gospel Lesson just read, from John 17. We begin with prayer.
Dear fellow disciples of our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ:
- We are not privileged to know the content of a lot of Jesus’ prayers, with the exception of this great section of Scripture in John 17. It is a fascinating thing, really, to hear the Son of God Who is One with the Father, communicate with the Father. He prays for us, principally, and also to inform us.
- We may not know what else the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit communicate with one another – in regard to physics, chemistry, or the power to create and run the universe. But we can know what God’s concerns are when it comes to us. Jesus reveals this to us in His prayer.
- Of great importance to God is that we know Him as He truly is. This is part of the work of Jesus, what He was sent to do. Though we are sinful and rebellious human beings, in many respects bereft of Divine and cosmic wisdom, God wills our forgiveness and our restoration to genuine human “being.” And as Jesus stated, to know God, His gracious love and mercy, “is eternal life.”
- We teach our confirmands each year, and in this ministry we devote a great amount of time, energy, prayer, and deep concern. It is not principally to enable our children to become experts in the Catechism, little “doctors” of Lutheran theology. No, our purpose is the same as that our Jesus – that they may know the Father, the only True and Living God, and that in knowing Him they might have eternal life.
- There is so much that is included in this – knowing and seeing the glory of God, having a deep and rich relationship with God, having the assurance of His blessing for this life, in this world, and knowing with clarity and certainty where we are headed – in the new heaven and earth where our true citizenship abides as children of God.
- These are the concerns which Jesus expresses to the One Who sent Him and assigned Him His glorious work, His work for us and for our benefit and blessedness. As we consider His prayer, we are privy to see the deepest concerns of God’s heart – and that is us, our blessedness and life! As we contemplate these Words of Jesus, and grasp them, we are imbued with the very wisdom of God! First we see that:
I. The Glorification Of God Is In The Cross Of Jesus Christ, Which Was To Commence The Very Next Day
Text: “Father, the hour has come: glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You.”
A. This Is Amazing, That Jesus Would So Humbly Suffer, When He Has Authority Over All Flesh
Text: “You have given Him authority over all flesh.”
B. The Purpose Of His Authority And Of His Humble Self-Sacrifice On The Cross Was To Give Life To All Of God’s Children
Text: “You have given Him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom You have given Him.”
C. This Eternal Life Jesus Gives By Revealing The True Nature Of The Father To Human Beings
Text: “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. I have manifested Your Name to the people Whom You gave Me out of the world.”
Statement: All of this is quite different from the way in which we ordinarily think of God, of ourselves, of the church, and of our churchly activities. We usually think that we are the ones who are seeking God – or perhaps not; but in reality, He is the One seeking us and our blessedness. We generally think that we can find out about God by our own reasoning and reflection; actually, God must manifest or reveal Himself to us. We think that God, like us, loves power and privilege; actually He sets aside His glory and prerogative even to point of hideous death on the cross as an utter reprobate criminal out of love for us.
Application: So, rather than thinking that we can grasp hold of God and gain life, we must acknowledge that God is the One grasping us and giving us eternal life. And rather than thinking of Jesus as somewhat weak and aloof to the affairs of the world, He actually has authority over all flesh! What a privilege it is to be among those whom the Father has given to Jesus “out of the world.” What we have “learned” about Jesus, and about our Heavenly Father, the only True God, has been given to us by Jesus. And this “knowing” God is eternal life – to know that as we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sin, for the blood of Jesus, shed upon the cross, cleanses us from all sin! This is what Confirmation, worship, Bible Study, everything in the life of the church is ultimately about!
Transition: And “CHRIST’S GLORIOUS WORK FOR US” includes us – what we have become as Christians, children of God, simply what we are and all of our being and doing! For according to this prayer of Jesus:
II. Jesus Is Also Glorified In God’s Children Of Faith – Who Are Given To Him By The Father
A. We Are A Gift From The Father To His Divine Son, To Jesus
Text: “I am not praying for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. All mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them.”
B. And Jesus Continues To Teach Us, We Who Are Children Of God, Through God’s Word
Text: “I have manifested Your Name to the people whom You gave Me out of the world . . . I have given them the Words that You gave Me.”
1. So we receive God’s Word from Jesus
2. So we keep Jesus’ Word and are kept in faith by His Word
Text: “I have given them Words that You gave Me, and they have kept Your Word. . . . I have given them the Words that You gave Me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from You; and they have believe that You sent Me.”
C. Jesus Continues To Pray Fervently For Us, For Our Great Good, That We Be Kept In Faith, And That The Whole Church Enjoy Unity With God And One Another
Text: “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 Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, 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.”
Statement: Usually we think that we must do something in order to glorify God, and often, in view of our sin, we do not think ourselves capable of bringing glory to God. But it is God Who has given us glory – by making us His dear children in the Lord Jesus, forgiving our sins and giving us eternal life. We are His children by faith – and just this, that we have become His children, brings Him glory. This is astonishing! But this is the heart of the Father, the will of the Father, “CHRIST’S GLORIOUS WORK FOR US,” and it brings Him glory. To know this is eternal life!
Application: So, what we often think of as our “glorifying God,” if we are so befuddled as to take pride in ourselves and in our own good works, actually brings no glory to God – it is an insidious and infernal attempt to glorify ourselves. But just being children of God, who believe in Jesus, confessing our sins and rejoicing in His gracious love – this glorifies God and the Lord Jesus Christ! And our works of love – if they are genuinely works of love – also reflect the glory of God!
Conclusion: This prayer of Jesus calls us to discard our flat, shallow, trivial, and earth-bound perspectives of God, the church, and ourselves. It calls us away from the self-idolatry of pride, and from the self-destructive ways of self-determination! It reveals the awesome power of God, the magnificence of His love for us, and “CHRIST’S GLORIOUS WORK FOR US.”
If we know the Father, the only True God, and Jesus Christ Whom He has sent, this is eternal life. And there is nothing we can do to bring more glory to ourselves than this glory that God has already bestowed upon us freely by His gracious love.
This is the work and the life of the church, and among those whom God keeps in His Name, those given to Jesus, there remains unity with God and with one another forever. This is the aim and goal of Confirmation, and what we celebrate with our confirmands this morning. It is the glorious work of Christ – thanks and praise be to God forever! Amen.
Votum: And the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds in the true faith, which is in Christ Jesus, even unto life everlasting, Amen.