Keyser, Keith: Manna In The Morning-52 ~ John 17:1-Upper Room Ministry

Hello, listening friends. This is Keith Kaiser coming to you once again for Manna in the Morning. We're studying in the Holy Word of God, the Upper Room Ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, and this morning our reading is in John chapter seventeen beginning at verse one. These words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son that thy son also may glorify thee. Here we come to a new section in the upper room ministry of Christ. Whereas in chapters thirteen and fourteen, he and his disciples were in an upper room, privately giving teaching about what was to come. And in chapters fifteen and sixteen, the Lord Jesus would take them out into the streets of Jerusalem and talk about their public testimony and fruit bearing, and also the persecution they would suffer. Here, chapter seventeen is totally different from all of those chapters, for it records for us the Lord's prayer to his Father in heaven. The Lord Jesus here communes with his Father, and it sheds an interesting light on the heart of the triune God. The Lord Jesus spake these words, lifting up his eyes to heaven. Notice there was a reverence about his prayer. He said, Father, the hour is come. Glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee. It's interesting that once again, as the Lord Jesus faced the hour of going to the cross and of laying down his life as a sacrifice for sin, he wasn't thinking about the pain and the physical anguish that he was to endure, nor the emotional suffering or the spiritual suffering at the hands of a holy God for the sins of the world. No, he was looking beyond the suffering to the glory. As he would later say to the two on the road to Emmaus in Luke twenty four, ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to have entered into his glory? Here the Lord Jesus asked the Father for glory, but his request is so unlike the request that man often makes on this planet. Men and women seek after glory that people may admire them, that people may think well of them, that they may be remembered by posterity or history. But here the Lord Jesus asks for glory for the specific purpose. He says, glorify thy son that thy son also may glorify thee. The Lord Jesus wanted to be glorified that more glory may come to the Father. He wanted the spotlight shown on his impeccable character to show exactly what God is like. A God who so loved the world that he would give his only begotten son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The Lord Jesus says in verse two, as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him, and this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. So this one who is to be glorified is the one who's been given power over all flesh, or authority over all flesh, it could be translated. The Lord Jesus has been given authority over all mankind, and what does he seek to do with that authority? He gives eternal life. What is that eternal life? Eternal life is defined in verse three as knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom he had sent. That's what the Lord Jesus says eternal life is. Do you have it today, friends? It's not a question of saying you're a Christian or of outwardly professing to be something that inwardly you're not. It's not a question of going to church or your church membership, as good as those things may be in their proper place. It's a question of a personal relationship with God through his son. Eternal life is all about knowing the God of heaven, the one who created us, and the one who can recreate us in the new creation through his son, Christ Jesus. It's all about knowing the Lord Jesus and getting to know what God is like through him. What a tremendous gift it is that God gives eternal life to those who put their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus. When we come to him in our sins and confess what we are, sinners in need of a savior, hell-bound and deserving the judgment of God, nevertheless, we can come to God and cry out for mercy based on the death of his son, the Lord Jesus, who rose again for our justification, and we can know him through the Lord Jesus Christ. We can have that life which is eternal, which is an eternal relationship with the Father in heaven. Oh, how wonderful it is to know him. Come to know him today if you don't already.