DELIVERED BY
C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"These words spoke Jesus, and lifted up His eyes to Heaven, and said,
Father, the hour is come; glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may
glorify You." John 17:1.
THIS was a prayer after a sermon. These words Jesus spoke and then He
lifted up His eyes to Heaven in supplication. No discourse should be
unattended by prayer, for how can we expect a blessing on what we have
heard or spoken unless we ask it of the Lord? The sower should water
with many a supplication the seed that he has sown and the hearer
should diligently seek the favor of Him who gives bread to the eater as
well as seed to the sower. It was a prayer in connection with the
Lord's Supper. Surely above all things, prayer should mix with every
part of our attendance at the sacred table. Dare we come to the sacred
feast without prayer? Can we sit there without prayer? Can we retire
without prayer? If so, let us not wonder if the ordinance should be a
mere form and unrefreshing to our souls. With sermon and with sacrament
let us mingle the salt of supplication without prescribing how much.
Observe the attitude of the prayer. The Savior, it appears, prayed with
uplifted eyes. There is much in this outward manifestation of His
devotion. We have not time to enter into it fully, but this may
suffice–the uplifted eyes showed to Whom He was speaking and it bore
testimony that that He was not idly drawing the bow at a venture, but
directing His prayer unto God and looking up as the arrow ascended to
His Father's Throne. It showed, also, that He was looking away from and
above His disciples and their sympathy, above all the world and its
enmity and even above Himself. His outlook was towards the
Invisible–this is for our instruction. He could have prayed with eyes
closed if it had so pleased Him, but His were the opened eyes of faith
and love which could look into the face of God and could yet look upon
all things round without distraction and, therefore, it was not
necessary for Him to draw down the curtains of His eyelids, but He
gazed into the opened Heaven.
Notice the commencement of His prayer, for it furnishes our text. He
began by saying, "Father." He did not say, "Our Father." "Our Father"
is for us, for we, in the filial relationship which we sustain, are
many. But, "Father," is for Him, for He is one and He is such a Son as,
in some respects, we can never be. Into the mysterious doctrine of the
eternal filiation it is not ours to enter, but we know it to be a Truth
of God. "Father," is a word appropriate to our Lord's lips, alone, in
its highest conceivable sense and how grandly it comes from Him! It
shows His love to God, His confidence in God, His complete resignation
to the Divine will and His sweet acquiescence in it. He is about to be
broken in pieces with the iron rod of His Father's vengeance, but He
calls Him, "Father." He is about to drink that cup of wormwood and gall
which would have been Hell to us if He had not drained it dry, but He
says, "Father."
And herein He sets us an example–in all times of tribulation let us
fall back upon our sonship, our adoption and the fatherhood of our
great God! To our Father let us go, for to whom else should a child so
naturally fly? Where else can we go but to our Father who knows what we
have need of before we ask Him and who will never desert His own, but,
like a father pities his children, will pity them that fear Him? The
prayer itself–the very fact of the prayer–shows us His manhood. Jesus
pleads–He must be Man. He lifts His eyes to Heaven and He cries,
"Father"–He must be like ourselves, a Man.
But the prayer, in some respects, speaks of the Deity which it scarcely
veils. As in some statues which you must often have looked upon with
admiration, you seem to see the face of the figure through the marble
veil, so it is here in the prayer of Christ that the God shines through
the Man. It is such a prayer as only He might offer who is God as well
as Man. Dare you say, "Father, glorify me, that I may glorify You"?
That would be a presumptuous expression for creature lips to utter!
Only He who counted it not robbery to be equal with God, though He made
Himself of no reputation, might thus pray! Though He cries to God,
"Father, glorify Your Son," yet may He add and put no explanatory
sentence
with it, "that Your Son also may glorify You." He is able to return all
the Glory God may give and has the power as much to magnify the
Father's name as the Father may magnify His name. Here I see the
Humanity, but I admire and adore the Deity of our blessed Lord.
The first sentence of His prayer reveals His foresight–"Father, the
hour is come"–the hour ordained in the eternal purpose. The hour
prophesied of which Daniel sought to know. The hour towards which all
hours had pointed. The central hour–the hour up to which men dated and
from which they shall date again if they read time right. The hinge,
pivot and turning point of all human history! The dark, yet delivering
hour! The hour of vengeance and of acceptance. "The hour is come." He
knew it. His inward Infallible foresight made Him know that now was the
time for Him to offer up Himself a Sacrifice for sin. His expression
is, however, very choice. "The hour is come." His faith thinks it but
an hour–the midnight of Gethsemane, the morning of the scourging, the
day of the crucifixion–all are but an hour, a short space.
Now is He in trouble, for His time of travail is come. But He counts it
as an hour for joy of that which shall be born into the world by His
grievous pangs! Thus His love and patience make Him despise the time of
shame and reckon it but a brief interval. The foresight of which we
have spoken makes Him look beyond the hour. You and I look into the
hour of darkness, as a frequent rule, and see no further, for our eyes
are dim through unbelief. But He goes on beyond the hour and His prayer
is, "Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You." He fixes
His eyes upon the Glory that was yet to be revealed and for joy of that
He counts even His death to be but an hour–looking upon it as soon to
be over and lost in the Glory of His Father!
In all this, Brothers and Sisters, let us imitate our Lord and let us
keep our eyes not on the present, but on the future; not on this light
affliction, which is but for a moment, but on the far more exceeding
and eternal weight of Glory which will come of it. And let us with holy
confidence, whenever our hour of darkness arrives, resort to our God in
secret. The best preparation for the worst hour is prayer! The best
remedy for a depressed spirit is nearness to God! In this, then, let us
follow our Master and may the Holy Spirit help us to do so. Let us now
consider the essential words of the prayer. They are twofold and in
them we find first a petition for Himself–"Father, glorify Your Son."
And, secondly, the motive of that petition–"that Your Son also may
glorify You."
I. Begin, then, with THE PETITION FOR HIMSELF and I invite you to
observe it as an answered petition. More than 1,800 years have rolled
away since those Divine Words fell from our blessed Master's lips and
they have been answered and are still being answered! We shall not look
upon them from the standpoint of the Apostles, but from our own, and
regard the prayer as one which is granted. And, first, it was answered
in and during His sufferings. Some of the early fathers confined the
sense of these words to the passion of our Lord and I like their strong
expressions when they say that His Cross was His Throne and Gethsemane
was as glorious as Olivet, if not more so–for the glory of the Cross
would be a wonderful theme if man had mind and words enough to expound
upon it.
Do we speak of ignominy? Doubtless He died a felon's death. Do we speak
of shame? No doubt they spat upon Him and derided Him. Do we speak of
weakness? No doubt He slept in a grave. But in His ignominy, shame and
weakness, Jesus is most honorable, adorable and strong! Faith sees a
moral and spiritual splendor about her crucified Lord which outshines
all the previous glories of His eternal Throne. I shall not so confine
the sense of the words, but yet that sense must be included. The Son of
God was glorified while He was dying and it was one part of His Glory
that He should be able to bear the enormous load of human guilt. As a
race we lay crushed beneath it.
A thousand Samsons could not relieve us! Angels and archangels,
cherubim and seraphim could never lift the stupendous mass! But this
one Man, alone, with no help–in weakness of body and in death
pangs–bore away the enormous load of human guilt! The chastisement of
our peace was upon Him–the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all!
What a load it was! And that He could bear it was, indeed, a display of
His Glory. The lost in Hell cannot bear the wrath of God! An eternity
of suffering will not have discharged the dreadful penalty and yet He
bore that burden in an hour! Oh, marvelous strength of the Incarnate
God! Glorious are You, indeed, O Christ, upon Your Cross! More
glorious, even, than in that moment when, with a word, you shall shake
not only earth, but also Heaven, for now the weight of angry Heaven
rests on You and You stand fast beneath it. Glorify Him, Beloved, you
for whom He bore that weight! Glorify Him that He was able to endure
it!
He was glorified, also, in the manner in which He bore it, in that He
sustained it without shrinking or starting back. There was no guilt or
guile in Him, though questioned again and again before Caiaphas, Herod
and Pilate. There were no angry speeches when He was brow-beaten,
buffeted, blindfolded and spit upon. He displayed nothing but
gentleness, even when His enemies had pierced His hands and His
feet–nothing but triumphant pity and almighty love even when they
mocked His agonies. They could not anger Him with all their reviling
and when they cried, "Let Him come down from the Cross and we will
believe on Him," yet He did not loosen a hand from the cruel tree to
smite the scorners nor shake His feet free from the nail to spurn the
blasphemers.
When you think of His physical agonies, of His mental torture, of His
spiritual darkness–when you consider that all the powers of earth and
Hell were let loose upon Him. And when, worst of all, you remember that
the Father's face was hidden from Him till He cried, "Why have You
forsaken Me?" and yet consider that our Champion, having begun the
redeeming work, went through with it and never drew back His hands from
the Covenant which He had made, nor flinched under the strokes He
bore–I say He was glorious in His passion and His prayer was heard!
The Father did glorify His Son even on the tree! It was an hour of
Glory that might dazzle angels' eyes–that hour when He said, "It is
finished," and gave up the ghost. What had He finished? He had finished
that which saved His people! He had peopled Heaven with immortal
spirits who shall delight in Him forever and had shaken the gates of
Hell! God indeed glorified His Son in enabling Him to bear and bear so
well, all the weight of sin and the penalty that was due to it.
And now, today, Beloved, we see that God glorified His Son in His death
because in dying He saved His people. I do not believe for a single
moment that the result of Christ's death ever was, or ever could be,
uncertain. That which He intended to do by it, will be done and has
been so far done to the last jot and tittle up to this moment. His
great object was the redemption of His chosen–"Christ loved His Church
and gave Himself for it." It is said of a certain company that they
sing, "He has redeemed us from among men." Now, when He died, He did
not render the redemption of His people possible, but He ransomed them
completely.
By His agonies and death He did not merely give a bare hope of the
pardon of sin, but He hurled the sin of all His elect into the depths
of the sea in that same moment! He did not merely make the salvation of
men a possibility if they would, but He saved His people then and
there! He finished the work which He came to do, in proof whereof it is
written that, "this Man, after He had offered one Sacrifice for sins
forever, sat down at the right hand of God." And He would not have sat
there if His work had not been done! According to the words of the
Prophet, He had finished transgression, made an end of sin and brought
in everlasting righteousness, for He had offered an effectual Atonement
which none can deny. And so the Father glorified His Son, even when He
died, since He accepted His redeeming blood on the behalf of His
people.
The Father glorified His Son by making Him, even in the hour of His
passion, to be victorious over all His enemies. Those nailed feet
bruised the serpent's head so that he could never resume his former
power. Those nailed hands grasped the serpent of sin and strangled it!
And that dying head, as it bowed itself, smote Death with its own
sword, as David smote Goliath, for He, "death by dying slew." The
powers of evil were tremendous. Think of sin, of Satan and of
death–but all their hosts were defeated in that one pitched battle of
which the Cross was the banner and the dying Redeemer the Champion! O
glorious Lord, You have led captivity captive, making a show of Your
adversaries openly even on Your Cross, and nailing to the accursed tree
the handwriting of ordinances that was against us. Yes, the Father
glorified You even there while yet You were in the agonies of death!
Beside this, there were some outward signs of the glory of Christ even
in His death which we can scarcely stop to mention. Did not the Temple
rend her veil? Did not the Sun conceal his face? Did not the rocks
split and the dead arise? Was not all Jerusalem filled with tremor and
did not the centurion cry, "Truly, this was the Son of God"? Yes, the
Father glorified His Son even when it pleased Him to bruise Him and to
put Him to grief! With one hand He smote and with the other hand He
glorified! There was a power to crush, but there was also a power to
sustain working at the same time. The Father glorified His Son.
And now, Beloved, what shall I say concerning the Father glorifying the
Son after His death and as the result of it? I will not attempt to
expound it, but I will simply say that the rending of the veil at the
moment of His death was the glorifying of Christ–for now there is a
way to the Throne of God made manifest for us, which before had been
closed. Then the opening of His pierced side was another glorifying of
Him, for this day the double fountain is to Believers the
effectual cleansing of both the guilt and the power of sin! And thus
the Savior's pierced heart glorified Him in its power to bless. Then
that poor body lay in the gave–I call it poor, for so it
seemed–wrapped in linen and the spices. But, Beloved, the Father
glorified even that dead Body which men thought to be corruptible, for
it saw no corruption!
During the three days and nights no worm could come near it, nor trace
of decay. That crystal vase in which the rich ointment of the Savior's
soul had dwelt must not be injured. "Not a bone of Him shall be
broken." Beautified by those scars as when a skillful artist renders an
image more lovely than before by marks of the engraver's tool, that
body must be safely guarded by watching angels till the morning came.
It barely dawned. As yet the sun was rising and lo, the Sun of
Righteousness, Himself, arose! As a man arising from his couch puts on
his garments, so did our Lord put on the vesture of the Body which He
had laid aside and came again into the world alive as to His Body and
His Soul–a perfect Man!
Oh, it was a grand glorifying of Christ when the Father raised Him from
the dead and He was seen by His disciples once again! Death had no
bands to hold Him. The sepulcher's ward could not confine the
unequalled Prisoner. Declared to be glorious by His Resurrection from
the dead, His prayer was heard! And before long, when a few weeks had
passed over Him, there came another Glory–for from the brow of Olivet
He gently ascended, floating in the air from the company of His
disciples, rising up in the midst of angels till a cloud received Him
out of human sight–
"They brought His chariot from on high To bear Him to His Throne. They
clapped their triumphant wings and cried, 'The glorious work is
done!''"
His Father glorified Him and now He sits at the right hand of God!
Words, you are dumb things, you cannot tell of His present Glory!
Early the other morning there came to my bedside a Brother to awaken me
whose face seemed to beam with joy as he said, "In my sleep last night
I thought I saw the Lord upon His Throne! And oh, the Glory which the
Father put upon Him! I wish I could fall asleep again that I might
continue to dream on." The tears were in his eyes, as he said, "Oh, the
Glory of Christ! Oh, the Glory of Christ!" I reminded him of how Mercy
laughed in her sleep and Christiana asked her why, and when she told
her dream, the matron said she might well laugh if she so dreamed!
Happy are those who, sleeping or waking–living or dying–may but get a
glimpse of His Glory! Nothing ever ravishes my heart like the thought
of my Lord's being glorified! Oh, if I could, by some means, help to
honor Him! If only I may but be the earthen vessel in which His
treasure should be stored, or the trumpet by which His name might be
proclaimed! That would be joy enough for me!
And you all feel the same, you who love Him. You delight to think how
high His Throne is and how bright is His Countenance, and how
resplendent are His courts. Have patience. You shall see Him soon, for
the Father will glorify Him in the Second Advent. He tarries; He
tarries long, as we think, yet He says, "Behold, I come quickly; and My
reward is with Me." He is coming to be glorified, even among the sons
of men! So shall the prayer of the text be fulfilled in the golden ages
yet to dawn–and then throughout eternity!
II. We pause a moment and then we shall briefly think of THE MOTIVE OF
HIS PRAYER. "Father, glorify Your Son, that your Son also may glorify
You." Do notice this. When you pray, it is a grand thing to pray with a
clean heart but selfishness is uncleanness. In our blessed Lord there
was no selfishness. He said, "I seek not My own Glory" and even in this
prayer that word of His is true, for He only seeks Glory that He may
glorify the Father. Beloved, the desire of our Lord is granted, for God
is glorified in Jesus Christ more than in any other way.
The Glory of God in Nature is inconceivable. This round world and all
that dwell therein. The open sea calmly mirroring the sky or ruffled
with tempests. The wondrous expanse of Heaven, fleecy with clouds, or
blue beneath a torrid sun, or lit up with innumerable stars. Yon hills
with all their forests. Yon laughing valleys with their lowing herds
and bleating flocks–"These are Your glorious works, Parent of good,
almighty," You get Glory from every flickering blade of grass or frond
of fern and every flitting insect and creeping worm mean Your praise!
There is nothing but what glorifies You, from leviathan to a minnow.
Yet all Nature put together fails to reveal all Your glorious
attributes! The Divine faithfulness, justice and truth are scarcely
manifest in Nature, though traces of them may be seen–but in the face
of Jesus, who is the express Image of the Father, God is glorified to
the fullest!
In the death of Christ, above all things, God is glorified, for there
all the attributes of God are seen. There was the power which sustained
Christ beneath His more than Herculean task. There is the love which
surrendered the Darling of
its bosom that He might die instead of traitors. There is the justice
which would not, could not forgive sin without satisfaction. There is
the Truth of God which had threatened to punish and did punish–which
had promised to give a Savior and did give Him. There is the
faithfulness to the Covenant which kept that Covenant at such a dread
expense. There is the wisdom which planned the marvelous way! O,
salvation by a Substitute–no, let me put it all together–the
wholeness, the holiness of God! Yes, all His attributes are seen, each
one equally magnified in the death of Jesus Christ. He is glorious and
the Triune God is glorified in Him.
And now, Beloved, God is glorified in the death of Christ by the love
of all those whom Jesus saves; by the sacred awe and filial fear of all
whom Jesus brings to the Father's feet; by the ardent, patient devotion
of all who are consecrated in heart and feel the sacred flame of love
to Christ setting their souls on fire! Up there in Heaven, where the
white-robed never cease to sing–and here below where martyrs were
burned for their love of God; where confessors defied all adversaries
to spread abroad the Glory of His name; where humble Christians suffer
in patience, or labor on with diligence, or walk in holiness–the
Father's name is glorified through the passion of the Christ of God!
We had many things to say, but time fails us and, therefore, we close
with these three observations which we want to leave upon your minds.
The first is this. Christ's motive should be ours. When you ask a
blessing from God, ask it that you may glorify God by it. Do you pine
to have your health back again? Be sure that you want to spend it for
Him. Do you desire temporal advancement? Desire it that you may promote
His Glory. Do you even long for growth in Grace? Ask it only that you
may glorify Him! If there is anything that you dare wish and pray for,
put it so–"Father, bless Your child that Your child may, in return,
bless You and serve You." Those are clean prayers which have such a
motive–all others have the taint of self about them. God help you to
do everything for His Glory–to speak for His Glory, to live for His
Glory, to die for His Glory–and then you shall rise again and live
forever for His Glory! Happy, happy is the man whose lot this shall be!
Let this be the desire which masters you, even that which moved your
Lord!
Next, Christ's theology should be ours. What is that? Why, first that
He is to be glorified and, secondly, that the Father is to be
glorified! Error sometimes blows one way and sometimes another. In
years gone by, the difficulty was to bring men to glorify the Lord
Jesus–they would worship God–but not the Christ of God. And so there
came the great Arian fight and afterwards Socinian controversies, for
they would not glorify Christ. Oh, you who have been saved by Him, I am
not afraid of you on that point, but nowadays there appears to be, in
some minds, a forgetfulness of the Father!
Christ is loved, for He died, but many seem to look upon the Father as
having no share in the wondrous work of redemption! But, Beloved, they
are one in our salvation! Father, Son and Spirit agree in one in our
redemption and it would be fatal, indeed, for us to set one Person of
the Divine Trinity above the other two! Let all men honor the Son even
as they honor the Father–and honor the Father even as they honor the
Son! It would be traitorous to Christ's inmost wish if we were to
glorify the Son and fail to reverence and love the Father!
Lastly, let every Believer here see His security. Is it not a most
wonderful guarantee of the safety of everyone for whom Christ died,
that the Glory of Christ and the Glory of the Father–and I may add the
glory of the blessed Spirit–are all equally concerned in the salvation
of the believing soul? Dare I say it? It would be a blot upon the
everlasting Glory if one believing soul were ever lost! Then were God's
Truth no longer sure; His faithfulness no longer firm; His love no more
immutable! His power might be doubted–His changeableness would be
proven. But, Beloved, it cannot be! Christ will not lose a sheep of His
flock, nor will the Comforter lose a spirit in which He has once began
to indwell! You can rest in this!
Abide without doubt or fear in Christ, for the mountains shall depart
and the hills be removed, but the Covenant of His love shall not be
removed from you, says the Lord that has mercy on you. Believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ, dear Hearers and these Divine privileges shall be
yours! And as I prayed just now, so I pray yet again, that these things
may belong to every soul in this house without exception, through faith
in Christ Jesus, by the work of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen!
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–John 17. HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN
HYMN BOOK"–416, 412, 233.
The Colportage Society conducted by Mr. Spurgeon supports 82 men in
needy districts and does a great work in selling Bibles and healthy
literature. Owing to the depression of trade and the falling off of
subscriptions, this branch of holy service is, at this moment, in a
difficult position and will soon be in urgent need unless the Lord
should move some of His stewards to help. It seems necessary to give
this announcement so that friends may know that there is a channel for
their gifts and a reason for bringing them forth. Mr. Spurgeon feels
confident that by some means or other the present necessity for the
Lord's work will be graciously supplied and furnish fresh occasion for
gratitude and increased faith.
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The Royal Prerogative