The glory of Christ guarantees that I don't only have power over my flesh, but I have power over the enemy, the glory of Christ gives me power over evil. Far too often, we talk about the devil and evil as if they are more powerful than Christ. They're not. No one and no thing is more powerful than Christ. Welcome to Gospel Daily, my name is Josh Weidman, pastor of Grace Chappell, and today we're going to talk about a subject that may not be the most popular of all subjects. That is the glorification, or even I should say, the exclusivity of the glorification of Jesus Christ. Let me break that down for you for a moment. Jesus was all about himself, and God was all about himself. You see, they had to be because Jesus is God, and therefore he had to be glorified by the Father. If God was to glorify anything else, then that thing would become God. I know, it's a deep thought, but if you think about it, God had to be all about his son because he has to be all about himself, because he's God. If God glorifies anything else, then that thing becomes God. So, with him being all about his glory, he had to continue to make his glory known through the ministry of Jesus Christ, and not only when Jesus Christ was on earth, but continually and daily in our life, he's making his glory known. I love that about our Father, and I shouldn't be ever upset or even jealous of the glory that he demands for himself, but in fact, I should be so honored that he would bestow his glory in my life on a continual basis. Today, we're going to talk exactly about that. What does it mean for God's glory to be manifest in my life in the middle of this postmodern world that we live in? You're going to be listening to the second part of a message that I preached on John chapter 17. Let's take this truth that's from this passage and apply it to our life. I think as we do, we will find the power of the gospel daily. John Arrowsmith, another famous Puritan, he said, "God is glorifying himself by taking what is too dazzling for our weak eyes and making it conceivable or visible in the person of Christ." He goes on to explain it like this. He says, "We can't grab the sun from the sky. It's too great. It's too vast. We burn up, right? We can't grasp the sun from the sky, but I can have a basin full of water, and I can see the reflection of the sun on that water in the basin, and there I hold it within my own grasp." He said, "So that is also what has happened with Christ. Christ becomes the basin by which the glory of God is held." Christ is that basin that allows us, enables us to behold the fullness of God in the everydayness of our life. So in Christ is saying, "Glorify me, Father." And in glorifying me, you will glorify yourself. He is praying for his own glory to be made known, but in a way, in a tangible way, that we could understand it and grasp it. Sometimes I think we go too far in talking about Jesus as if he's our best friend, our close companion, or a Facebook friend, right? He's so much more than that. He's the glory of God manifest in our life. Yes, he is a friend, and he says that he comes in and he doesn't call a slave anymore, that he calls us friend, but he is the manifestation of all that God is in our lives. He was when he was here on earth, and he still is through the power of the Holy Spirit, being proclaimed in our hearts. So we praise here in this prayer, "God, make your reality all that you are dwell in me fully, and only he can pray that." No one else can pray. You and I can't say, "God, allow the fullness of who you are to dwell in me. It dwells in us through the person of the spirit, but none of us have the full manifestation of God in us." That was only in Christ. He was both God and man, and they both existed 100% equal parts in the same place. And so he's saying, "Your glory dwells in me, and let it be known, glorify yourself through me." And then he prays, "Knowing that the cross is before him, and return the fullness of your glory to me, just as it was before the world was ever created." You see, God's glory and God's love have nothing to do ultimately with creation, having to exist. He is glorified, by the way he loves us, but he was glorified, and he was loving before the world ever existed, verse 5. So as Jesus is here requesting for God to glorify him, he's not praying some prayer of self-aggrandizement, "Make me greater than I actually am." No, he's actually praying, "Make me as great as you know that I am, and let the world see me in my glory." He had full expectation of the horrific suffering he was about to go through, but he knew it would all be worth it, for he would be restored to glory, and that is not only wonderful for God, but it is absolutely wonderful for us. He is not some God that came manifest something and then faded away, but he is a God who came, manifest his glory, and then return to it in an even more powerful way than when he had it here on earth. There are several implications of Christ asking for God's glory. Here's the first one. If you're taking notes right this down, the glory of Christ gives us power against the flesh. Every single day, your flesh fights against you to desire things that are other than what God would want you to desire. Yes, of course, the enemy is at you, but at the end of the day, your own flesh is at you. Your desires, your sinful desires, that's what the Bible means by flesh, your old man, as Ephesians 4, verse 20 says, your old self is constantly telling you, "It's okay, just do that. Just have that. Just take that. Nobody sees. Nobody will know. It won't hurt anyone." And our flesh is constantly trying to tell us, "Sinn, go against the order of God. Go against what he has asked you to do in obedience." We're all one step away from a sin that could destroy us spiritually and could absolutely ruin our earthly legacy. What the glory of Christ promises for us is that he became like us to die in our place to then give us power to fight our own flesh. He became like us, proving that he has power over the flesh when he came back from the dead. First Peter, chapter 3, verse 18 gets this very clearly. It says, "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous." He had no sin. His flesh wasn't fighting against him because he's absolutely perfect, but our flesh fights against us. So he died righteous for the unrighteous that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh like us, in the flesh, but being made alive in the Spirit. So when we take communion, we eat of that little cracker. Part of the power we should be remembering is that he came and was like us. Though perfect, he had a body, he had flesh, he was in the world, he was tempted in every way and is able to identify with us, yet he has power to overcome temptation. And the same power that is true for Christ is also true for us. So when he's saying, "Glorify me, glorify me, let my glory be made known to my followers, my disciples." What he's saying is, "Let all that I am and even the power that I have over the flesh be real for them as well." By God verifying Christ's work on the cross, he's accepting this request of Christ saying, "Yes, I will. I will prove to them that you can stand in their place, overcome the flesh and give them power against their temptations and their desires." The theological term for this is he was our substitutionary atonement. That he stood in our place, he was our substitute. And he atoned or paid the price for the wrath of God that is towards us because of our sinful desires. But he didn't just die and stay dead. He came back proving that he has power over flesh, power over death, power over the things that we face. Now listen, I know firsthand that there are times temptation grabs us by the jugular and says, "You're going down." And we are so tempted that it feels like I can't not sin, a double negative because I have to give in to this because it's right here in front of me. We are lustful and lazy people and our flesh will always take the path of least resistance to get us into the worst circumstances where we give over ourselves to something we know God doesn't want us to give over to. What I'm saying to you, my friends, is that the power of Jesus Christ, the fact that he was glorified means that when I am facing temptation and trouble, I can rely on the power of God to help me fight against it and fight to win, fight to win. When I'm at home with Christ, then I will be at war with sin and I'll win the war with sin because Christ won the war with sin. It was just yesterday, received a text message from someone who was saying, "Listen, this is so hard. The sin thing that I'm facing is so hard." Specifically, it was just struggling with anger and bitterness. It's like, "I can't fight it." And it makes me want to act out and wrath. You can fight it. And all I can text back was, "You can fight it, but not on your own. But in the power of Christ, you can fight it. No temptation is stronger than he is." So the fact that he has been glorified means that I have his power to fight against my flesh. Now, I believe some morning, Satan doesn't even have to wake up in the morning to come and try to take me down. Because he knows my flesh is so strong, it will take me out all by itself. But yet there are other days where I'm fighting it in the spirit where Jesus is helping me fight against my sin. And I think that's when Satan's like, "Okay, open the gates. Unleash the unseen realm against the sky. And we're going to take him down because his own flesh isn't taking him down. We're going to take him down." And guess what? The glory of Christ guarantees that I don't only have power over my flesh, but I have power over the enemy. That's the second reality I want you to get from this passage. The glory of Christ gives me power over evil. Far too often, we talk about the devil and evil as if they are more powerful than Christ. They're not. No one and no thing is more powerful than Christ. We can fall into the other ditch though and assume that evil and the devil are not that powerful and we have nothing to worry about. That's not true either. The unseen realm is very real. The devil hates you. He hates you. Think about the most evil villain you can possibly think of. He's after you, the worst terrorist you could ever imagine. He's on your trail. That's Satan. He wants to take you down. But guess what? He is not more powerful than Christ. And the fact that Christ has been glorified, that God has verified that He is true and the ultimate reality for all of us, that means we can have power over the enemy now and forever, that ultimately He will not defeat us. Colossians chapter 1 verses 13 through 14 says this promise, "He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved son." I love that. We changed addresses. Forward my mail to the kingdom of His beloved son because I am now a new resident of that, not in the dominion of darkness, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Friends, no matter what I face, no matter what I've done in my life, I can look back and go. He delivered me from my darkness. He delivered me from my sin. And when I face sin in the future, I can say, man, I'm a son of the king. My residence is in the king. And I abide in him and I trust in him. And I know that He will help me no matter what I face. I was reading the commentator this week, Leon Morris, one of my favorites, and he was talking about how we as a church can't just be a holy club. We can't just contract out our spiritual life. But he goes on to say, this is not the prayer of the master. Rather, Jesus prays for us that we would be kept from evil. And then he says, or perhaps better, that we're kept from the evil one. Notice the prayer isn't just kept from evil. This isn't being kept from some Disney kind of villain. This is being kept from the evil one. The very one opposed to all that God is and the loving Christ prays and says, keep them from the evil one. We don't contract that out. We don't act like we're a holy club that we're good and the evil one can't get in unless he has a membership card. He's real and he's present and he's ready to take us out at any given moment and get our Savior prayed for us here. And I believe still prays for us today. Keep them from the evil one. You know that movie, Sandlot? You've seen that movie where this homespun baseball team plays on the other side of the fence and on the opposite side of the fence is what they call the beast, right? Remember the beast, the big dog? And they were so fearful of the beast, right? But even in the movie, they could only smell the breath of the beast, but they did not feel the pain of his bite. And if you think about that as an analogy for our Christian life, we are eternally protected from the power of Satan that can harm our souls. We're protected by Christ. We won't feel the sting of Satan's bite. If we're truly in him, there is no beast that can come against us. Even the ultimate evil one, we are protected from him. Now, can we smell the stench of his breath? Yes. Well, we have nauseous feelings from pain and suffering that exist in the world because the beast exists in the world? Yes. But I am ultimately protected by Christ. The power of Christ being glorified means I'm protected from my own flesh and I'm protected from the evil one. But also, the glory of Christ secures for me then eternal life. It doesn't only protect me, but it transfers me to new life. Christ's glorification ensures that my salvation is everlasting. If he wouldn't have been able to be glorified, then the cross would be meaningless. But the fact that the Father glorifies the Son, it makes verse three true. And this is eternal life, he says, that they know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Eternal life is the fact that I know Christ and can know Christ. And by knowing Christ, I know the one true God, not when I'm dead, but now it starts now. It's not a vague belief. It's not one of my little things that helps me in a postmodern culture. It's the ultimate reality that forms me that there is one true God, only one true God, and I can know him by accepting his Son, Jesus Christ. Hebrews, chapter seven, verse 27, talks about Christ being the one true God, and it says he has no need like other high priests, and I would even add like other gods of other religions. He has no need to offer sacrifices daily for first his own sins, and then for these people. Why? He has no sins. And he ultimately in and of himself is the sacrifice for all other people. Since he did this once and for all when he offered himself, he's saying, listen, every time he goes and prays on your behalf, you can read Hebrews, chapter seven for yourself. Every time he prays on your behalf, verse 25 says, he intercedes for us. When he's praying for you, he never has to walk in and say, Oh God, do you know who I am? Oh God, here's a peace offering for me and also for who I'm praying for. But he walks in with absolute confidence and says, listen, everyone you have given to me, I will never lose. And all those who believe in me are mine. They were yours and they're mine. And we together as God will provide for them everything they need for life and godliness. And then he prays for us and he intercedes for us. He knows he's already accepted by his righteousness alone. So whatever he asks for us, the father grants it to him. Friends, this should change our reality to know that we have a Savior who is praying for us just before service. I'm backstage praying for you, praying for this message and how privileged I felt to be able to be there in that room and say, Lord, I know that right now you are praying for everyone who's entering that room. You're praying for me, you're praying for us. And you're not praying in some way begging, giving peace offerings, hoping things will be done in people's lives. You already know it. You're already working. It should change our perspective, but it should also change the way that we pray. When we pray, we submit our requests to Christ knowing that he prays in our behalf. This gets exactly to what Christ has been saying in the preceding chapters. He says, pray in my name, pray in my name, pray in my name. If you pray in my name, the father will kill your prayers and grant them to you. Why? Because he listens to me. Because I'm one with him. I'm interceding on your behalf, and then as you give me prayer requests, I'm praying for you. I'm taking those to the Father and by the work of the power of the Holy Spirit and the providence of the Father and the atoning work of Christ, I'm giving you all the joy and the peace that you need, no matter what you face, no matter what trials you face. Which leads me to my final conclusion from this chapter, and that is this, the glory of Christ. It means that when we make requests from this dark world, he gives us light. He gives us hope. The glory of Christ gives us light in a dark world. He helps us find hope. He helps us find answers. You know this. The world searches for hope in all the wrong places. But Christ being glorified verifies that he gives us the reality of answered prayers that will last all of eternity. He shines his holy light into our darkness, giving us hope and joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, the fruits of the Spirit all over our life in a world that doesn't make sense to have such things. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 6 captures it well when it said, "For God who said, let light shine out of darkness has shown in our hearts to give us the light of knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Let light shine out of the darkness. God said that. What did it do for us? It let this knowledge fill our hearts that all the glory of God is captured in the face of Jesus Christ. So my friends, when we understand that we have a Savior who has been glorified, it gives us power over the flesh, power over evil, the promise of eternal light, light in the dark world. Knowing those things and knowing that he's praying for us should change our perspective when we pray. When we pray, we're joining Christ as he prays for us. Think about it this way. When soldiers, our missionaries are prayed for, someone desperately gets on their knees and says, "Listen, I'm praying for you. I will intercede for you. We're praying for soldiers that are fighting battles. We're praying for missionaries that are fighting hard things." Those people tell us, "Your prayers mean the world to me. Please don't stop praying." So also, friends, it should be our experience that we are emboldened by the fact that we have a Savior who prays on our behalf, who is holding us up, who sits at the right hand of the throne of God, and is fighting for God's glory to be known in your life. It changes the way we pray. It changes the way we live. Robert McShaney said that, "Well, when he said, "If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million in him, yet distance makes no difference. I know that he is praying for me." If I could hear his prayer, I'd say, "Bring it on, world! Bring it on!" Because I have God Almighty who is praying for me, and it shouldn't make any difference whether I see him on a baby monitor, hear him through the wall, or simply know through Scripture that he is praying for me. Christ has been glorified by the Father, and it means that when we believe in him, we have power over flesh, power over evil, the gift of eternal life, and light in this dark world. No longer are we part of the dominion of darkness as 1 Corinthians 1, 3, 13 said, but we have now been transferred to residence with the king. I close with this illustration. Imagine if you could go to heaven, and you entered a room that was full of little buckets or bins all over the wall, and as you entered this room, Christ takes you in and says, "I have to show you something." You enter into the room and you say, "Wow, what's all this? Just buckets and bins everywhere." He says, "In each one of these, there are little slips of paper that represent every time you were prayed for by someone. Each bin represents the person who prayed for you. All of these people prayed for you through the whole of your life." Imagine you'd start walking along the walls, and you'd see the names of familiar people, mom, massive bucket, notes overflowing, first grade teacher, Mrs. Copenhagen, grandma Irene, next door neighbor, person behind you in line at Starbucks every morning. All of a sudden, you see the names of these different people represented by these different buckets, and you'd look inside and you see slips of paper all representing the many times they prayed for you. My hope is that for you, you show up in heaven, and if there were such a room, you'd find my name on a wall with a bucket full of prayers for you. But more than any other earthly person, I think if we entered that room, there'd be one massive bucket full to the top and overflowing, and there within it would be all the millions of little prayers represented by pieces of paper that Jesus Christ has prayed for us. You see, the Father tells us that He has glorified the Son and has seated Him at His right hand, and we know that He is interceding for us. And more than any other person who has ever prayed for you in your life, you have a Savior who intercedes for you, so live in light of that power this week. Well, my friend, I hope you're encouraged by that, that you have a Savior who's praying for you. He's continually lifting you up in your needs before the Father. He knows what's best for you, so trust Him. My name's Josh Wyman, pastor of Grace Chapel, and thank you for joining us for this episode of Gospel Daily. This was the second part of a message, so if you'd like to listen to the first part, or you'd like to look back at any of our other episodes, would you stop by our website, gospeldaily.org. That's G-O-S-P-E-L-D-A-I-L-Y.org. We also have all sorts of blogs and articles that I've written, other videos there, and links to my sermons at Grace Chapel. Stop by our website and find some of those resources. We do this ministry to encourage you in your walk with Christ, so take advantage of it and know that we're here for you. We're on your side, and we want to see you continue to live out the gospel daily.
