The Village Church
The Priority of Glory - Audio
You want to hear me through this? I didn't feel like it's working as long as you're okay with it. I'm fine. I can talk loud. I can talk loud. I first want to say that I'm proud of you because I am famous for when you turn the clock ahead. I've done this three times in a row. Before I got married at a church back in St. Louis, I would show up right at the end, but I didn't know it was right at the end. I showed up right at the end of the service, said hello to everybody scooted right in the middle of the row. Everybody stood up, benediction over. Oh, did we turn the clock ahead again? I always missed that. So I just expected because everyone's just like me, nobody would be here. And I'd say, oh, I feel you. I'm here for the benediction when you do get here. So congratulations. I'm proud of you. You're putting me to shame. You're putting me to shame. Will you turn in your Bibles with me to John 17? John 17, and while you're turning there, I want to tell you a story about something that happened to me last summer. It's about 10 o'clock in the morning in Hospice of the Valley, where I work in Decatur as a grief counselor. I was going down the hallway, and our CFO, our chief financial officer, met me right outside of his office, and there's sort of this little four-year area where the postage machine is and the copier and so forth. He looked at me with an intensity, and he said, I saw you this weekend at Bridge Street. And I said, it wasn't me. I wasn't there. Totally ignored what I said. He said, oh, no, I am sure it was you. I am positive it was you. He said, I said to my wife, see that guy up there by the fountain? That's one of our chaplains. He said, see that woman he's kissing? That's not his wife. As soon as he said that juicy little detail, people just kind of stop what they're doing, you know? This one lady was loading a stapler, and now all of a sudden she acts like she cannot figure it out. So she switches it back from hand to hand, and I know what she's doing. She's stalling. She's stalling because does anyone here not know how to open a stapler? She's acting like this is just racking her brain. Oh, I can't figure this out. What's with this stapler? And this lady who's just made a copy just decides, well, this isn't the copy I wanted. So she busies herself with, oh, I can't figure this out. There's no paper jam, everything's perfect. She's just going over and over and over again, and she's, you know, everyone's just stalling. And so he just continues with his story. He says to his wife, should I confront him? Because if he's kissing some other lady, if he's having an affair on his wife, he can't be our chaplain. We can't allow him to go on in this chaplain. I'm thinking, where is she going with this? I've already told him it's not me, you know? And so he keeps going up, and a few more people have started going back. So, so he keeps on going, and he said, I just couldn't believe how into that girl that you were. And he said, he said, why? I crawl my way up to the crowd, and he said, I get right in your face, and he said, and then I realized, he said, well, it wasn't you. And everybody, I just went, oh, shoot! Oh, gosh, you really had me go on there, you know? And immediately, everyone is able to make the copy that they want, and the loading of the staplers becomes understandable once again. Oh, I get it. Now, oh, you just opened it right here. And what I learned from this is that people just love to listen in. There's something about listening into a conversation, because if you listen in and you know you're, you know, this isn't something you'd hear otherwise. The sense is that you're going to learn something that you wouldn't know any other way, except by listening in. And we're about to read a passage that Jesus prays to his Heavenly Father in the hearing of his disciples. It's a prayer that's meant to be overheard. It's meant to be overheard. And I, before we read, just think about, if you were one of those disciples listening in on this prayer, what does God say to God? You know, code 45, they're buying it, proceed on. I mean, what in the world does Jesus, the Son, say to God the Father? I mean, what in the world does that conversation look like? John chapter 17, the first five verses. After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed, "The Father, the hour has come, glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people, that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me and your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began." Will you please pray with me? Heavenly Father, your word is so beautiful. We pray that you would touch our hearts, that you would speak to us by it, and that you would enlighten our hearts to understand that which you would have us to take to heart. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. I want us to see that it's a remarkably intimate conversation that the Son is having with the Father. And one of the most important things we learn from this prayer is that the priority of the Son is the glory of the Father. The priority of the Son is the glory of the Father, showing forth his attributes, his power, his majesty, showing forth his Father's glory. And we've seen the Son glorifying the Father in three ways in this passage. I'll go over them quickly. Verse two, he gives eternal life to those God of points. He completes the Father's work in verse four. And in verse five, he is restored to his position of glory. I want to talk about these three points, but then I want to bring it home to our own lives and talk about what each of these look like for us. So initially what we're going to do is look at the way the Son glorifies the Father. And then we're going to go a step further and say, and this is the way we do this. This is what it looks like in our lives. So I want us to see that because the priority of the Son is the glory of the Father, we also make God's glory our priority. That's point number one. Point number two, because the Son brings glory to the Father by completing the Father's work, we need to bring God's glory by completing the work that he's given us to do. And I'll talk about what that looks like. And thirdly, the Son brings glory to the Father in being restored to his position of glory. We make God's glory our priority by commemorating the restored glory of the Son. And we'll unpack that a little bit. I know it may sound confusing. So the way the Son glorifies the Father and then how we do it, that's pretty much where we're headed. The Son has been given authority over all people that he might give eternal life to those who have given him. The Father can't give eternal life. He doesn't give it directly to us because he is unequivocally and absolutely perfectly holy. And he can't touch anything to do with sin and we're all about sin. So what he does is he gives eternal life to the Son and the Son gives eternal life to us. It's the reason he took on flesh. It's the message of the Gospel. He takes on flesh to be this mediator between ourselves and God. So that when we believe on him, he gives us from the Father eternal life. That's the Gospel. That's the good news. The Father gives eternal life to the Son. The Son gives it to those God appoints to receive it. It's part of the way the Son glorifies the Father. So because the priority of the Son is the glory of the Father, we also make God's glory our priority. And I want to talk about what does that look like? What does that look like in our lives? How do we do that? How do we do that? By comprehending, by understanding what eternal life is, do you really understand what eternal life is? Okay, well, what is it Brad? What is eternal life? Well, it's defined perfectly for you in verse 3. Look back in the passage, verse 3. This is eternal life that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. So Jesus is the sent one from God. And this is a familiar, as you read through the book of John, this is a very familiar term, the sent one from God. And you don't need to turn there with me unless you want to, but I'll read these scriptures to you. Everything that Jesus does is meant to bear witness to the Father. So that as we see Jesus performing miracles, it's not just in a sense for the miracles and end to itself. But it's meant so that those around would say, "This man is from God. No one can do these things unless he is from God." And so the miracles actually bear testimony that Jesus is from God. He's not just a freelance, good Samaritan. He's from the Father, and he does these amazing works so that the people around would say, "This man is from God." He would have to be to accomplish all of these things. One of the ways we see this is in John chapter 5, Jesus says this, "The very works that the Father has given me to finish." These works that I'm doing testify that the Father has sent me. So we see it there, and then moving on to verse 6, very commonly quoted verse, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him to himself." Chapter 12, Jesus cried out, "Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but also in the one who sent me." So by the time the disciples are hearing this prayer, this is a familiar term to them. Jesus comes from the Father. It's part of what eternal life is. It's not a new theme. So what does this mean for us today? It means that if you have eternal life, if you have eternal life, let me say it differently. If you believe that God the Father is the only true God, and that Jesus Christ came from the Father, it is only because God the Father gave it to the Son to give to you. Do you understand that? God gave eternal life the ability to know to the Son to give to you. This isn't your own idea that you walked an island, you decided to accept Jesus as your Savior. It's your decision, and it's kind of you and God. That's not the way it works. That's not what Scripture tells us. The only reason you have eternal life is God the Father gave eternal life to the Son. The Son gave it to you. The Father is the reason you know the Son. It's the only reason you're here. The Father gave it to the Son to give to you. So how does this glorify God? We glorify God by comprehending what eternal life is, but it's really a recognition that it really doesn't have anything to do with us, which at first may seem scary, but if you reflect on it, it's actually a means of security, of assurance. That since you really didn't have anything to do with it, you don't have to do anything to really maintain it. If God sets his affections on you and he brings you to himself, the burden of the responsibility of having a relationship with himself is on him, which kind of frees me up a little. It's actually good news. It doesn't mean I'm going to go do whatever I want, but the burden of keeping that relationship, he assumes. It's one of the very few trademarks of Christianity that is completely different than any other religion on the planet. The burden of having a relationship with God is initiated and absorbed by God. Muslims believe that they have to die for their God. Christians have a God who dies for them. Pretty sweet. If you were choosing, if you were trying to Google and not shop for a God, I kind of want the one who dies for me. I want the one who dies for me. It's the Father's initiative. It's the Father's desire for his own pleasure to draw you to the Son. So how do we respond? By truly comprehending that it's the Father's work, by truly comprehending and resting. When we really understand that it's everything to do with him and nothing to do with us, our resting demonstrates that we get it. Because you're not striving. You're not trying to do the right thing. You're not proving to God that you're worth saving. When you rest, when you're able to say, "Lord, I don't understand why you chose to save me." But you're so good. You're so good. And I'm resting in that. Just the act of your resting demonstrates that you get it. You understand that eternal life was a gift. You're not doing maintenance for it. Does that make sense? You're not having to maintain it. And that resting is part of the way that we glorify God. Not the way that we think. All the things that I do for God. Now, when you were able to relax and understand that this was a gift from the Father, completely of his own initiative, that glorifies God. That's our calling. So not only do we see the Son glorifying the Father by giving eternal life, we also see Him doing so by completing the Father's work. Jesus states this throughout His ministry. And I'm just going to read you a few passages out of earlier in John. Following the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus says this, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work." That's part of the way the Son glorifies the Father, finishing the Father's work. And so confident is Jesus Christ that He has already accomplished the Father's work. That in verse 4 of this passage, if you look in this passage, He speaks of it as if it's already finished. It's a past concluded action. It hasn't even happened yet. And He's saying, "It's done. I have completed the work you've given me to do." And the work of reconciling sinners to the Father required the agony of the cross, the turning of the Father's back on the Son, drinking the Father's cup of wrath. It's all still to come. But He knows it's already a finished deal. And in His mind, it's as good as already done. It's as good as already done. But because the priority of the Son is the glory of the Father, we have to think about what is the work that God calls us to do? If we want to be like Jesus and Jesus finishes the Father's work, we also need to finish the Father's work. But what does that look like? What is the work that God calls us to finish? And I just want to ask you, when you think of the work, the work that God calls you to finish, to glorify Himself, what kinds of things come to mind? What kinds of things fill your mind as you think about the work that God calls you to do? And I would challenge that you probably think of the way you raise your children, or if you're children, the way you obey your parents, or your jobs in service to Him. These are some of the things that you might say, the priority of missions, of angelism, the way that you share the word. These are all important. Don't get me wrong. Every one of these is important. But when we're talking about the work that God requires of us, none of them are mentioned in Scripture. And I want to talk to us about what the work is. This exact same question, what is the work that's required of us to glorify the Father? A rose between Jesus and His disciples. And I want to read it to you. Very important verse. John chapter 6, Jesus says this, verse 27, "Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you." Verse 28. And the disciples ask Him, they say this, "What must we do to do the work God requires?" Here are common sports fans. Verse 29, Jesus says, "The work of God is this, to believe in the one that He has sent." Oh, believe? That's the work. Believe? That's not what I expected. Believe? That doesn't make any sense. That's not work. Believe in the one that, believe in the sent one from the Father. That's the work God requires. How many of you are surprised by that? Think of all the things that we do to work, you know, this thing that we do to work. The work of God, the work that glorifies the Father is to believe in the sent Son. That's the work of God. So I want to describe this thing that is a familiar pattern in my own life, sort of a side note on belief, and I hope it's helpful. The ability to even know the Son comes from the Father. The ability to even know the Son comes from the Father is His initiative. But it also requires the deliberate choice of an individual. And you know what? Evangelical Christians are notorious for making belief in the Son, this one-shot deal. I believe in Jesus, and I'm saved, and from the rest of my life on, I rely on my own self-effort. That is not the way it's supposed to be at all. Preaching the Gospel to yourself. Do you ever hear this term? This is something that happens daily, hour by hour, believing the Gospel. And believing the Gospel, it changes the way that we live. It's not just I believe in Jesus, and now I've just got it. Or for God, I've got to work for God. The work of God is to believe in the Son. When you believe in the Son, it transforms the way that you think. I believe that Jesus forgave me, and this belief in the sent one enables me to forgive others, because I realize that I've been forgiven. How am I going to hold this against somebody else? Because I've been forgiven way more, far more. That's believing Jesus daily. I believe that as I look to Him in His finished work, I will see more and more and more of Christ's righteousness manifested in my own life. This is the belief that the Son is talking about. This is the belief that's commended to us. This is the work that we are called to complete that glorifies the Father. Jesus glorifies the Father. We glorify the Father by believing. I believe that because of the cross, I'm enabled more and more to die to my own sin and live in the righteousness. There's so much more to say here. For right now, it's important for you to know that belief is not a single solitary event that happens once a conversion. It's ongoing. It's ongoing. The Father is glorifying Christ's completed work, and one of the traps that we fall into, you and I, is when we believe that the work of God is anything other than belief. When we get stuck in our heads that it's anything other believed, and the thing is, this is such a subtle thing that happens. You won't see it happening. You'll catch it way at the end of the road once you're on that little habit trail. It's spinning, feeling like you're working for God. But there's not a billboard that occurs that says, "By the way, I want you to know you just switched from believing in God to making whatever it is that you're doing the work that God requires of you." You won't catch it right away. The way that it happens in my life is usually when I'm doing things at my work. I do grief counseling, and I come to the end of my rope, and I think I do not have any more compassion like at all. I hear all kinds of stories that would rip your hearts out, and I have to keep going and keep going, and I just get exasperated in the work. And I get on my knees, and I say, "Lord, why aren't you filling me up after all? I'm only doing the work that you called me to do." And the Spirit says, "Really? You're believing?" Because that's the work that I've called you to do. Not spend yourself. Not spin yourself. Not exhaust yourself. Not all these things you put in the place of believing in the sent one. It is a common experience for all of us to do the things that we know we're called to do as Christians. But the work that glorifies God is belief in His sent Son. I hope that's freedom for you. I hope that's freedom. It's a beautiful thing. Everything else in our life follows a logic that we're supposed to work for, you know, you work and you get something in return. The gospel counterintuitive, absolutely, positively counterintuitive, and it's a beautiful thing. It's a wonderful hope, a reminder that this is God's initiative. The ability to even come to the Son comes from the Father. It's His initiative. The work that He calls us to is to believe in the one that He sent. This is good news. It's really good news. There's a patient I met at our hospice who has ALS. ALS, sometimes it's called Lou Gehrig's disease. It is a muscular degenerative disease. It is the worst one I've ever seen. One by one, your muscles shut down and you keep 100% of your mental capacity, but you lose your ability to speak clearly and eventually at all. You lose the feeling in your limbs and you're unable to -- eventually you become bed bound. And this person actually dies when they are breathing muscles. There's nothing wrong with the muscles themselves. It's the neurons. It's the transmitters that go from the brain to those muscles that somehow -- you can tell I'm not a doctor. Not my gift. The message is not given to those muscles to tell them what to do. The muscles are fine though. And this person just sort of atrophies. And I spoke with this gentleman and he was a -- he started a business from scratch. And some of you, if I said the business, would know. I mean, it's a successful business out of Decatur. And he said, "I plan for my retirement. I've done -- I gave my daughter the wedding of her dreams. I have taken care of my wife. I've consistently taken care of my family. All of my investments are in order. I mean, he had a plan down to the little detail of everything where he's been responsible for what he's been given. And then he said, "But now I'm absolutely worthless. I have no value. I can't work for God anymore." And I was actually working on the sermon when I talked to him. And I said, "You know, all of you -- I didn't say quite like this, but for the sake of time. All of the things that you mentioned that you're doing for God, all wonderful and all really good, but it's not really the work that God calls you to do. The work is to believe in the sent -- in the sent son from the father. The work is to believe. And your ALS or any illness that you may struggle with does not prevent you from finishing the work God calls you to do by glorifying him. He had a confused that I can't -- if I can't do with my body, I can't work for God. Untrue, 100% untrue. We glorify God by believing in the Son. And he could still glorify God. And just as a side note, some of you may wrestle with this, I sure do. What does it look like for him to believe God? Part of it would be, and I don't want to get too much into it, but belief that God is still good. And I want to tell you, many of you have Jeremiah 2911 memorized. I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Can you imagine how offensive that would be to read to a man who's dying of ALS? And yet, the challenge is, it's all true. Every word is true. And as you think about what it would look like to be in that state, and believe that God is still good, and believe that Jeremiah 2911 is still true in your life, which it is, you kind of have to redefine what do I think is a hope and a future. It kind of makes you dissect the terms. And maybe I'll preach on that later. It's a beautiful concept. Sometimes the things that we think are a beautiful hope and a future, now what God has in mind, but the belief that God is still good is true. And as he believes in that, he glorifies his father. He glorifies his father. It's a wonderful, wonderful thing. So we glorify God by completing the work he has for us. And it's ongoing. It's ongoing. And we do this. The third way that we do this is, did I skip a page? Sorry. The third way that we do this is that we -- I feel myself going back to this. It's not always this easy. It won't always be easy to dissect. Oh, I missed it here. And this is what I'm really doing. It will usually take you at the bottom of your barrel when you've come to see that I think the reason that I'm so exasperated in my faith, the reason that I'm so exhausted, that I'm so sarcastic, that I'm so cynical, that I'm always worn out is because I put something in the place of belief as to what I'm supposed to do to work for the father. So I guess as a self-test before I move on, if you're exhausted in your faith, if you're cynical, if you're irritable, if you just feel restless, chances are very good that somewhere along the line, there's been a misunderstanding about what the work that God calls you to do really is. So the priority of the son, glory of the father, and we see the son glorifying the father by giving eternal life to those God has given him in completing the father's work and finally in being restored to his position of glory. I guess we need to ask how do we know he was restored to his position of glory, and I want to read to you out of Philippians 2. Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue acknowledged that Jesus Christ is, is lured to the glory of God the father, that the son's request was granted glorifies the father because it signifies that the son's work was completed in a perfect way. Everything the son sought to accomplish was completed perfectly, flawlessly, and that glorifies the father. We make the father's glory our priority by commemorating the finished work of the son and commemorating, it's just a fancy way of saying worship. We worship God because the son accomplished the work perfectly. Are you seeing how little a role, you know, we thought we're right up there with God, we're working with God and we're doing all these things? The reason we're even there is the father's initiative. We were just chosen by him. That kind of makes me stand up a little less straight, a little more leaning, a little less to do with me. And completing the work by believing in the sent one, also a gift, and not making it something else that I do, but acknowledging this is your work, this is your work, and now by commemorating the finished work of the son, he did all the work, I'm just going to acknowledge it. I'm going to worship him. I'm going to worship him. And there's sort of this, it's a silly illustration, but I'm going to use it anyway because it does what I needed to do. 11 years ago, I was the youth minister out at Westminster Presbyterian here in Huntsville, and for the 4th of July, we went to this couple's house, they had a house at Lake Gunnersville, and the whole day, it just poured down raining, which totally trashed the illegal fireworks display that the deacons were going to put on, and they said, "Oh, no, we know it's illegal, but it's okay, we're going to follow all the safety precautions, and that's going to be great." Nothing worked. Nothing worked. They were down below this little hill, and everything they lit, it does that sparkly kind of thing to tell you, "I'm lit, you should run away now." The rain just doused it, and nothing worked. And if you're dumb enough to go up to something that doesn't have a wick, and you don't even know what it does, it's like, "Oh, this is not going to be good, I'm going to hold a flame up to it." Not very bright. One of the things that did get off, I think it's called a chaser of some kind, and it chased a stick, and all the way down the hill. And he skinned his knee so bad he needed stitches. It was so embarrassing, it was so awful, that whole thing. Well, up to this point, it was not lightning. But then lightning started to flash, and a transformer was hit. Anybody here lightning hit a transformer before? You're kind of in the church mode, and you're all saying, "Oh, come quickly, Lord Jesus," and then it sounds like he just did. And everybody that was kind of on the lawn, kind of cheering them on with the umbrella, some people are just doused anyway, go running into this big porch area with a big, it's like a big glass solarium. And the sun was setting, it was one of those weird storms where it's raining, but it's still kind of sunny, and you can't figure it out, and the sun's going down. And we're in this big solarium, and lightning just fills the sky, and the sky is pink, and it's these lightning bolts that are kind of coming into each other. And then we started with the traditional. All of these kinds of things were like, "Wow, this is really good." And really, the best fireworks display that evening came from God. God wins. Meanwhile, we're trying to get the deacon to the ER so they can stitch up his knee, because he had no business doing any of those things. That's illegal. That's why it's illegal guys, you're not supposed to do it. I won't give you his name. Some of you know him. That's true. Huntsville is too small. So the cool thing that I want us to get from this is the reason that fireworks display was so beautiful, man didn't have a hand in it, didn't touch it. Everything we did failed. It was embarrassing. It was absolutely embarrassing. And the way that God came through and showed forth his glory in a magnificent way that no fireworks stand can ever touch, it kind of took our breath away. But I'm glad it worked that way. We were all joking about God versus the deacons. Which fireworks display would be remembered? Well, actually both, but for different reasons. The passage that we just looked at in Philippians tells us that at the end of time, all glory goes to the sun because of his completed work. And the sun turns around and glorifies the Father. It's the language of verse 1 in our passage, "Glorify your son so that your son may glorify you." And as the Son is glorifying the Father and the Father is glorifying the Son, this remarkably intricate, beautiful process that we can never completely understand why all that process is going on. You and I are given the ability to believe. We are given eternal life. Our salvation occurs as these two are glorifying the other. That's beautiful. I can't even express to you what that means in all of its fullness. While they are glorifying each other, we get eternal life. We get eternal life. We have nothing but our reverential worship. We have nothing but our worship. That's our role, worship. And as we close, I just want you to think about this, but more specifically, I want you to think about your role in this. This is our salvation. This is your role in our salvation. We are recipients of comprehending eternal life. Father gives eternal life to the Son to give to us. We are recipients of completing the Father's work because our belief is to believe in the one that the Father sent of his own initiative to believe in him. That's our work. And of commemorating, of worshiping the restored glory of Jesus. Philippians 2 summarizes it well. Our only response, both now and at the end of time, are knees bowing and tongues confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord. And it squarely leaves us as recipients of amazing love if you can accept it. So the burden of having a relationship with God is assumed by God. He takes that and he gives it to us. And so I just close with this question and I ask this of my own heart as well. Do you really have any idea how much you're loved? Let me pray for us. Heavenly Father, it's a hard thing to try to explain, but it's so easy. And what do you expect of us to believe in the sent one? To worship these things glorify you. And as your Son glorifies you and you glorify him, you give us eternal life, a blessing that we'll never fully understand, but we call it beautiful. And Lord, we can't wait till every knee bows and every tongue confesses that your Lord. And we know that this will be an ultimate glory to you. Heavenly Father, will you teach us to rest in these things? In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]