The Glorious Exchange – Pt. 2

where we began last Lord’s Day
in the consideration of this stupendous passage of scripture. I don’t use that word often,
but it certainly fits this because it’s, it really is God communing
with God. It’s Jesus Christ, the Son, interacting,
praying, communing with his. Jesus spoke these things. And
lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, Father, the hour has
come. Glorify your Son, that the Son
may glorify you, even as you gave him authority over all flesh,
that to all whom you have given him, he may give eternal life.
This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I glorified you on the
earth, having accomplished the work which you have given me
to do. Now, Father, glorify me together
with yourself with the glory which I had with you before the
world was. I have manifested your name to
the men whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours,
and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now
they have come to know that everything you have given me is from you.
For the words which you gave me, I have given to them, and
they received them, and truly understood that I came forth
from you, and they believe that you sent me. I ask on their behalf. I do not ask on behalf of the
world, but of those whom you have given me, for they are yours,
and all things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine. and I have been glorified in
them. I am no longer in the world, and yet they themselves are in
the world, and I come to you. Holy Father, keep them in your
name, the name which you have given to me, that they may be
one even as we are one. While I was with them, I was
keeping them in your name which you have given me. And I guarded
them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition so that
the scripture would be fulfilled. But now I come to you and these
things I speak in the world so that they may have my joy made
full 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 ask you to take them
out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They
are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify
them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you have
sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.
For their sakes, I sanctify myself that they themselves also may
be sanctified in truth. I do not ask on behalf of these
alone, but for those also who believe in me through their word,
even as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also
may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me.
The glory which you have given me, I have given to them, that
they may be one just as we are one, I in them and you in me,
that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may
know that you sent me and loved them, even as you have loved
me. Father, I desire that they also
whom you have given me be with me where I am, so that they may
see my glory which you have given me. for you loved me before the
foundation of the world. O righteous Father, although
the world has not known you, yet I have known you, and these
have known that you sent me. And I have made your name known
to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which you
loved me may be in them, and I in them. absolutely stupendous. What Jesus
has done here in this chapter, having wrapped up a very lengthy
discourse with his dearest friends, his apostles, having wrapped
that up, now he turns to commune with his Heavenly Father. This
prayer is unique as we saw last week to John’s gospel. The other
gospel writers speak of Christ praying. And Luke even records
some of the words in this near context, words of Christ praying
in the garden. But John’s prayer is different
than all of that. It’s unique only to John. It
is the longest of all of Christ’s recorded prayers. And it is an
upbeat prayer. It’s not gloomy. Jesus Christ
has overcome the world. He has already imparted that
encouragement to his apostles. And he is actually looking forward
to the cross. If you can imagine these long,
arduous three years having taken on human flesh, having been separated
from his heavenly father in a sense, Having borne the difficulties
and the hatred for God there on earth in front of all these
people, you can imagine that Jesus, now just moments away
from his arrest, now just hours away from crucifixion, he was
eager to go to the cross because he knew the cross ultimately
meant that he would be returning to his heavenly father. We don’t
know Exactly where this prayer was prayed We know that there
were many different ideas perhaps in the upper room perhaps just
outside the upper room on a landing perhaps Maybe even nearing the
Garden of Gethsemane Maybe still within the temple courts. We
just don’t know but there is a solemnity to this prayer All
its own that it really doesn’t matter where it was prayed. It’s
almost as if the location would Cease to exist as Jesus lifted
up his voice to his heavenly father There’s a simple structure to
this passage as we saw last week and we’re in the midst of the
first at first Jesus prays communes really and essentially walks
his way through a contract with his heavenly father. He prays
for himself. He prays for God’s glory. And
then in verses 6 through 19, he’s going to turn that prayer
and pray ardently for his apostles. And then finally, he will close
out and begin to pray for all future believers. In other words,
he will pray for the church, and that includes you and I.
We have no doubt that this prayer was spoken aloud. Jesus had Multiple
purposes for it. We began to talk about this a
little bit last week. I’ll delve a little bit deeper
Jesus had a purpose in praying out loud Jesus wanted to encourage
his disciples and certainly the words of this prayer. What a
tremendous encouragement this was and not only a prayer to
model how to approach the Heavenly Father, but a prayer about the
content, that He had glorified the Father, that work had been
completed, and now the Father was going to glorify Him. This
is more than just the prayer of a man to God. This is a prayer
of God to God. But in addition to modeling how
to pray and even modeling the content of the prayer and encouraging
in them He also wanted to teach them and share with them the
nature of God in that prayer, and even the nature of himself.
I cited a brief quote by Augustine last Lord’s Day. The prayer,
he said, which Christ made for us, he has also made known to
us, being so great a master, not only what he says in discoursing
to the disciples, but also what he says to the Father in praying
is for their edification. Friends, this prayer is for us.
This prayer does teach us. It does model prayer, but it
also tells us much about God, as we’ll see in a moment. Calvin,
John Calvin, in the same regard said this about this prayer,
about the fact that Jesus prayed this prayer aloud for the sake
of his disciples Calvin said this doctrine has no power unless
efficacy is imparted to it from above Christ holds out an example
to teachers not to employ themselves only in sowing the word but by
mingling prayers with it to implore the assistance of God that is
blessing may render their labor more fruitful. Do you remember
the illustration that I used last Lord’s Day? If there was
ever a prayer that didn’t need to be prayed, it was Jesus thanking
God for the bread. And yet Jesus modeled that. Here,
as Jesus prepares to go to the cross, he models the need of
grace. He models the desire for God
to be glorified in doing just exactly that, in bowing. and
praying to God for divine assistance. It is one of the most profound
prayers in all of scripture because it is literally God communing
with God. It is the son communing with
his father. It is a remarkable chapter. We call it the high
priestly prayer, but as I suggested to you last week, I think this
prayer would be more appropriately called the Lord’s prayer. We have in it, and I want to
point this out one last time, there were some that didn’t quite
understand what I meant, but there is a structure in these
first five verses called a chiasm. Now, you’re not going to lose
any sleep if you go home and don’t understand it, but a chiasm
basically is a structural device that authors would use in order
to really draw and focus attention and allow for the not just the
memory of the verse, but a full understanding of the verse. What
happens here is you have the subject matter ascending and
then descending in reverse order. It goes like this. Verse 1 matches
verse 5. Verse 1 says, glorify your son.
Verse 5 says, glorify me. Verse 2 matches verse 4. The Son may glorify you even
as you gave him authority over all flesh. Verse 4 says, I glorified
you on the earth. Which makes really verse 3 the
exact center point of this whole lesson. And it is a discussion
of salvation. It is a profound passage of scripture. What we have here, as I began
to explain last week, is the recitation of a contract. I had
opportunity to share this with some young people this week who
were dubious about Christ’s deity. And I suggested to them that
who else but God could call out to God for glory? Who else but
God could literally give God commands? As Jesus does twice
in this passage. It’s the recitation of a contract. Who else but God could put God
in any kind of obligation? This is a review of the covenant
of grace. Some people have mused, how do
we know that there was a covenant of grace? Well, Jesus here is
reciting an agreement that he had with the Father. We know
that a meeting took place. Nobody was there. But we know
that such a meeting must have taken place in order for Jesus
now to come back and to review that contract. And who else but
the Son could speak to God in such language? Who else but God
could put Him in any kind of obligation to review, if you
will, the Father’s end of the deal so that the Son can collect
on His portion of the arrangement? This is a remarkable passage.
This is absolute proof of the deity of Christ. What mere man
could stand before his creator ever and say these things? That
I glorified you perfectly. That is either an out-and-out
lie, the most ridiculous thing that any man could ever say to
God, not unlike that lawyer who came to Jesus. What must I do
to gain eternal life? And Jesus said, you know the
law, go love God perfectly, go love your fellow man perfectly.
And the man said, all these things I have done. That’s ridiculous.
We haven’t done those things perfectly for a single day, let
alone a lifetime. And yet Jesus has either the
audacity or the God given grace to stand before his heavenly
father and say, I glorified you perfectly. I never sinned, not
in thought, not in word, not in one little thing. And because
I glorified you perfectly, you glorify me in equal perfection. This prayer, it nestles the son
and the father into a relationship that is absolutely equal in terms. It nestles them in to a relationship
where one has merit. The Lord Jesus Christ, he has
done, and now he’s here, as it were, to collect. And so he claims,
literally, he commands the Father, glorify me. It’s an imperative. Jesus tells the Father what to
do, and who but God can do that? Nobody. And look at what He demands. He demands the very thing that
God said He would never share with another, His glory, Isaiah
42.8. Isaiah 42.11, My glory I will
not give to another, but between the Godhead Between the Godhead,
there is this exchange, as we began to see last week. And this
exchange has two parts. We looked at the first part last
week. It is a glory here that is being exchanged in Christ’s
anticipated work of redemption. That’s what he prays for in those
first two verses. Glorify your son. that the son
may glorify you even as you gave him authority. Jesus is standing
on this side of the cross in the final throes of the work
of redemption and he prays that the father would augment, assist,
stand with him, glorify the son, that the son would then glorify
him. Well, we began looking last week,
and I’ll just briefly breeze through that first. Jesus spoke
these things, verse 1, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said,
Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son. For many months Jesus has been
saying that His hour had not yet come, His hour had not yet
come, but now the Son goes before His heavenly Father and He acknowledges
that now the hour had come. It’s the hour of redemption.
Now the time had come and He prays that God would glorify
Him. Jesus wasn’t entirely without
glory during this time. John writing his gospel even
at the outset of this great gospel said that he had beheld his glory. Remember John 1 14. The word
became flesh and dwelt among us and we saw, we beheld his
glory. It was a careful and deliberate
observation of the glory of God, which was there, masked only
by humanity into which Jesus had placed himself and willingly
the word had become incarnate. It’s not that Jesus Christ laid
aside His deity. It’s not that He laid aside all
of His divine glory. But He took on human flesh. And
flesh was prominently what men saw. But those who were willing,
those who were willing to contemplate, behold, those that were willing
to really carefully deliberate this man, They saw Christ in
His glory. They saw the glory of God in
Christ. Here Jesus, just now hours before
He would be arrested, and then tried, and then ultimately crucified. Jesus now just hours from that,
and for whom almost everyone, the cross would be a shame. For Jesus Christ, it was the
moment of the greatest glory, the glory of God. It was the
moment of redemption. Jesus spoke these things, lifting
up his eyes to heaven. Verse 1, he said, Father, the
hour has come. Glorify your Son that the Son
may glorify you. even as you gave him authority
over all flesh.” He’s talking about his mediatorial work. He’s
talking about his plan of redemption being put into full effect, full
action. He’s talking about the completion
of his sacrifice for sinners. And so he says, you gave him
authority over all flesh. We looked at that last week.
He’s just talking about literally all of fallen man. All of fallen
man are given to Christ. He has authority over all of
them. And as a result, Jesus Christ
is able to give salvation to all whom he wishes. The Father gives, we saw, one,
if you will, lump sum. He gives the Son all of them,
and out of that lump sum, Some are called in time to salvation. Eternal life is the gift of Christ. Eternal life is His to give. It’s His gift. He doesn’t give
it to everyone indiscriminately. The Son gives to those who are
given to Him. from eternity past in the everlasting
counsel of Almighty God, this determination was made, and none
but those who were given to Christ would be saved. We come to the apex of that introduction,
really. Verse 3, merely the mention of
eternal life, Jesus or John, We heard arguments of both sides,
those that believe that these were John’s words because Jesus
refers to himself to the Heavenly Father by name. It seems as if
he’s outlining to God himself the plan of redemption. God didn’t
need to be taught. So there were those that thought
that these were John’s words, there were those that thought
equally strongly that these were Jesus’ words, a definition of
eternal life, a parenthetical thought, no doubt, but really,
at the end we saw it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if
you take these as John’s words or as Jesus’ words. What it is
is a definition of salvation. It doesn’t matter because this
is divine scripture regardless of whether Jesus spoke it himself
or whether John, seeking to assist believers throughout all time
under the direction of the Holy Spirit, provided this comment.
It doesn’t matter. This is eternal life. says the scriptures, that they
may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have
sent. To know the only true God goes
to the heart of those who didn’t know even who God was, that had
to set up all kinds of statues, that essentially had to almost
invent gods. One Puritan said that man’s mind
is a veritable factory of idols. And we know from looking at the
history of mankind how true that is. Buddha, Jupiter, Zeus, and
all the rest. But to know the only true God,
that’s the core of salvation. That’s what most heathen did
not know. But to know Jesus Christ, that’s
That’s truth that most of the Jews had utterly rejected thus
far. And Jesus prays that they would
know both. To know God, to know the full
nature of God, to know Him in His sovereignty, to know Him
in His holiness, to know Him in His wrath and His power, and
to know Jesus Christ as well. To know His love, to know His
mercy, to know His plan of redemption. to know his love for sinners. That is the gospel, isn’t it?
Essentially what verse three tells us is that God’s great
design is that people would come to know God’s plan of salvation,
that people would come to be saved, that they would come to
know eternal life and enjoy it. That’s the first portion of the
contract that Jesus reviews. Jesus is going toe-to-toe, as
it were, with His heavenly Father. He is laying out all the things
that He has accomplished by God’s grace and glory and for God’s
grace and glory, but He’s here to collect. And He’s already
demanded of the Father the glory for His anticipated work of redemption. He did His part in taking on
human flesh He did his part in coming down to earth and now
he wants the father to do his part and to give him the means
to complete the plan of redemption. But there’s a second part of
this contract that Jesus is reviewing and it’s in verses four and five.
It is glory for Christ’s already having been completed work of
redemption. It’s as if Jesus walks through
this tunnel-like feature and looks back and says, there, it
is finished. Now glorify me in a whole new
way. If you would, look at verse 4.
I glorified you on the earth, having accomplished the work
which you have given me to do. Now, Father, glorify me together
with yourself with the glory that I had with you before the
world was. I glorified you on the earth. This is a whole new reason. This
is a whole new ground of argument for what he believes is rightfully
his. He deserves to stand before Almighty
God and to hold up this contract and to ask God to hold up, God
the Father, to hold up his end. This is just remarkable language. It’s the same request. It’s the same appeal. It’s the
same demand that he makes in verse 1. Glorify me. Glorify
the Son. And he points out first that
I glorified you. I did something. I fulfilled
my end of the bargain. And he speaks of it as a completed
task. I’ve done my part. I’ve done
everything that you asked me to. And he speaks in the past tense
as if it’s already done. Jesus says that he’s already
completed what the father sent him to do. It’s as if he’s already
finished. He’s looking back and seeing
the totality of his work, including the cross, including the resurrection.
And it’s as if it’s already accomplished. In a sense, it’s prophecy. In
a sense, it’s It’s hopeful speaking. Jesus Christ knows the nature
of His heavenly Father. Jesus Christ knows His own nature. And He knows that sure as they
have set forth a plan, that plan will be completed. It will be
completed. He says, I glorified You on the
earth, having accomplished the work which You’ve given Me to
do. Jesus Christ looks back to a
point when everything was finished. And he speaks here of the whole
plan of redemption is completed. Remember, this was Jesus’ one
goal. His entire time on earth was
spent on one desire, to do the Father’s will. to do
exactly what God had asked him to do. John 4.34. Listen to this language. My food. Do you realize what food is? You’ll remember the need and
the nature of food at about 11.30. The food is the sustaining provision
of God for our physical lives. And Jesus says, my food is to
do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work. It
was Jesus’ one desire. John 5.30, I can do nothing on
my own initiative. I do not seek my own will, but
the will of Him who sent me. All I want to do is fulfill the
mission that God has given me. John 638, I have come down from
heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent
me. I have one goal, and that is to fulfill the plan of redemption
that God tasked me. John 850, I do not seek my glory. Jesus Christ had accomplished
this mission. He speaks of it as having been
accomplished. even if it hadn’t been accomplished
yet, knowing His Father, knowing His own nature, He speaks of
it as already done. What had He done? Well, He had become incarnate.
He had taken on human flesh. That He had done. He had done
that fully and completely. He had come down, taken on human
flesh, Born as a little baby in a manger through miraculous
means, He had taken on human flesh. We speak of it, it’s sad that
we speak of it only at Christmas time in these terms. God with
us. He is our Emmanuel. God with
us. The birth itself. as I said,
was miraculous, to which the angels sang, Gloria, glory to
God in the highest. He had glorified God not only
in his incarnation, but in the birth itself was miraculous.
He had glorified God in his life. His life was absolutely sinless. Even his enemies at the end had
to say, I find no fault in this man. He lived a completely sin-free
life. He kept God’s law perfectly. He fulfilled the law so that
even the devil himself could not find sin in Christ’s life. He glorified God in his ministry.
Everywhere he went, everyone he talked to, he testified of
God. Even by walking into the room,
he was a testimony to God. Not only in his flesh, though,
but also by his words, by his preaching, by his teaching, even
in this passage, by his praying. Jesus Christ glorified God in
his ministry. He glorified God by revealing
God. He glorified God by showing to
mankind the perfect ideal of God in man. John 1.14, which
verse we looked at just briefly, the Word became flesh and dwelt
among us and we saw His glory. There’s no doubt about it. Colossians
1 verse 19, it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness
to dwell in Him. There wasn’t anything left out
of Christ deity was there in fullness in a human frame Hebrews 1 one of my favorite
passages of scripture God after he spoke long ago to the fathers
in the prophets in many portions and in many ways in these last
days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of
all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is
the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His
nature. Jesus Christ was God in the flesh
and He was showing God to man just by walking into the room. Jesus glorified God not only
in revealing God, but by calling men to repentance for sin. God
hates sin. That shouldn’t come as news to
you, right? God hates sin. Sin is what sent
the Lord Jesus Christ to the cross, ultimately. And when Jesus began to call
men to repentance for sin, and to tell them that he would pay
for those sins, and to call them to righteousness, glorified God. He glorified God. And so Jesus,
looking back on all of this, ultimately culminating with the
cross itself, Jesus said, I glorified you. I glorified you even in
the cross itself. Jesus Christ fulfilled all that
his father had planned. Jesus Christ had accomplished
all that his father wished him to accomplish. I glorified you on the earth,
having accomplished the work which you’ve given me to do.
And here comes the absolutely remarkable twist again. I glorified
you. Now, Father, glorify me. This
is your end of the bargain. And he he he’s not rude about
it in the least. This is God talking to God, but
he is straightforward. He does command God. He does
use an imperative in speaking to God when he says, Not so much
pretty please, but God, I did my part in glorifying you. Now,
Father, glorify me. Glorify me together with yourself
with the glory which I had with you before the world was. Uses that little word now. And here still. Continuing on with the sentiment
of verse four, he’s looking back on an already having been completed
transaction. He’s done his part. He’s finished
the work that his father has given him to do. And he makes
a request of God. He makes a demand of God. He
issues God an imperative. that he have his own glory returned. Glorify me. Now Jesus, we know
this from the totality of scriptures, Jesus didn’t set aside his deity,
Jesus didn’t set aside his full glory, but it was encapsulated,
immersed into a human frame, into the human eye. Sometimes
men could not see His glory. Jesus, once it returned to full
display, He had willingly laid aside many of those eternal glories
just to be with His heavenly Father. But now He prays that
it would be restored and restored in full, restored to the glory
that He once had. Jesus Christ, in his incarnation
had blended divine glory with humanity. And in that sense,
it was covered over, immersed in humanity. But now in his return
to heaven, his humanity would be fully immersed into and overwhelmed
by divine glory. And that’s the first time that
humanity would ever experience that. Both aspects of his being
would be fully displayed. As one said, the glorification
that he prays for here transcends the glory of the passion of verse
one, because here he’s looking back, remember? He looks back
to a completed, consummated transaction. Let me show you where this takes
place, Philippians 2, if you would. Philippians 2, we have both elements
right here in this short passage. Philippians chapter 2, we’ll
pick up in verse 5. Philippians chapter 2, verse
5, it’s a call to humility. The first four verses of Philippians
2, humility, unity, oneness, An absence of factiousness is
really contained in almost every one of Paul’s epistles and in
good measure in most. Not unlike Philippians chapter
2, it starts with that call to unity, one mind, one faith. But
look at verse 5. Have this attitude. This is the
only way that you’re going to sustain that unity. This is the
only way that that unity is going to flourish is if you have this
attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus. And
I want you to note, he doesn’t even tell them immediately what
attitude that is. Have this attitude in yourselves,
which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the
form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being
made in the likeness of men. and being found in appearance
as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point
of death, even death on a cross. What Paul speaks of here has
been called in theology the kenosis, the laying aside. It’s not that
Jesus laid aside his deity. Let’s be clear about that. He
took on human flesh. And the reason was that if Jesus
had merely been born by two human parents, he would have imbibed,
he would have been born with original sin and in original
sin like the rest of us and would have had no capability of rescuing
fallen sinners. Jesus Christ took on human flesh. He came and was immersed into
human human flesh into humanity itself. And because of that, look at
verse 9, therefore also God highly exalted him. God glorified Christ
and bestowed on him the name which is above every name that
At the name of jesus every knee should bow of those who are in
heaven and on earth and under the earth And that every tongue
should confess that jesus christ is lord to the glory of god the
father jesus says Look, I glorified you You glorify me and in the
end God is glorified God the Father, God the Son, God even
the Holy Spirit, God is glorified in the glory of Christ, the glory
of the cross. Look again at verse five. Glorify
me together with yourself, with the glory which I had with you
before the world was. I just want you to close, I want
to close, and I want you just to note three simple things about
this glory. three simple things about our
Savior, that this glory was a restored glory. It wasn’t something that
was earned. It isn’t something that is bestowed
upon him for the first time. It is Jesus Christ by divine
possession. And he wants to be restored to
that glory, God’s heavenly glory, which he shared with the Trinity
from eternity past. This isn’t a prize that Jesus
earned. This is a restoration of something
that was fully and rightfully His in full. It is a restored glory. And it’s
a clear insistence that Jesus Christ is preexistent from eternity
past, as we’ll see in a moment, but He looks to the Father and
he simply says, restore to me my glory. The glory rather is
not only restored glory, it’s a divine glory. This is only
God’s glory. It’s exactly what Isaiah spoke
of. I will not give my glory to another,
but I will give it to another member of the Godhead. It’s God’s
divine possession. It belongs only to God. It can
be manifest only by God. It is His to share or not share
with whom He will, and He’s already said He will not give His glory
to any. And so for Christ to say, restore
to me my glory, is an absolute proof of His deity. He had it. And we can’t even
ponder, begin to really understand. It’s unspeakable to us to even
begin to fathom the depths of what this significance is, but
it proves that Jesus Christ is God. He’s co-equal. Part of this Trinity, existing
from eternity past, it is not only a restored glory, it is
divine glory, but thirdly, I want you to note, it is an eternal
glory. And in a sense, we’ve said this
throughout. glorify me together with yourself existing from eternity
past with the glory that I had with you existing in eternity
past before the world was. In other words, he says this
is a divine possession of both the Father and the Son and the
Holy Spirit existing from all eternity. It’s absolutely an
insistence on Christ’s pre-existence. Said one Puritan, the glory with
which the son had with the father in the time before the creation
of the world is a matter passing our comprehension. The pre-existence
of Christ, the father and the son are two persons equal in
glory. And Jesus says, glorify me. Give me back what
is rightfully mine. And we know that God did that,
don’t we? When God raised his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, we
know that he restored Christ’s glory in full. It was God’s absolute
acceptance of what Christ accomplished on the cross for you and I. What
a glorious truth this is. What a precious promise to not
just believers, those who know Him, but what a clear assertion
of Jesus Christ’s absolute deity to those who don’t know Him.
And to know that God speaking to God speaks of something that
is already accomplished. That’s absolutely something worth
pondering, isn’t it? Let’s do that in prayer. A merciful
king. As we look at this passage, the
words are even almost bewildering. In their intensity. In their
significance. We’re allowed to listen in to
an intimate conversation. With God, between God. With the
son speaking to the father. talking about things that our
minds can’t even begin to grasp. The Jesus Christ had fulfilled
all righteousness. The father was asked to fulfill
his end of the covenant. Lord, we thank you and praise
you that we know now that this prayer was answered in full as
you received Christ’s offering. on our behalf, His payment for
our wicked sin. And you received Him into glory,
into heaven to sit at the right hand of God and to reign with
you. Lord God, we humble ourselves in your glorious presence. Those
of us who are believers, what great confidence we can have
in knowing that our Savior, that simple little baby born in a
manger, That man that nobody cared for. That man that had no earthly
appearance that would draw and attract us to him. That man was
God. That man was God in the flesh
and he paid for our sin. Father, how could you not accept
his sacrifice? And you did. We rejoice in that. Father, if there are any here
who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and know the Heavenly
Father, His Father, Lord, we pray that you would so move in
their heart that they would see that Jesus Christ is who He said
He was, that you would be glorified again in bringing sinners to
repentance for their sin and do a glorious and joyful faith in your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.