John 17 : The Call of Glory

In Colossians 1:27, Paul calls Jesus the hope of glory. In Romans 5:1-2, He is the door of glory. Paul calls this reality, a great mystery of the ages. That God would install His fulness into weak and frail clay vessels is just an astonishing reality to comprehend. 

“There is a divine mystery— a secret surprise that has been concealed from the world for generations, but now it’s being revealed, unfolded and manifested for every holy believer to experience.”  Colossians 1:26  (Passion Translation)

Years before Paul pens this truth in the epistles, Jesus the image of the invisible God, prayed a prayer that would change history. In the midst of great pressure at the garden of Gethsemane , the Son of Man passionately cries out, that we would experience His glory. 

Jesus makes the Trinitarian desire so clear when He prays one of His last and most famous prayers in John 17. I believe this prayer to be the most vivid and vulnerable prayer recorded in the Scriptures. For an entire chapter, we are given a front seat to the historic and intercessory prayer of the Great High Priest Himself. We are brought into a prayer meeting that changed history. Praying in the garden of Gethsemane, it’s the expressed deep desire of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. John Piper states that “Jesus’ final great prayer in John 17 has been considered the quintessential chapter to study the heart of Jesus. Some church fathers have declared it to be the holiest chapter among the scriptures because in these verses the heart of Jesus is laid bare”. He calls it “the greatest prayer in the world,” and goes on to say…

“What hung in the balance was the glory of God’s grace and the salvation of the world. The success of Jesus’ mission to earth depended on Jesus’s prayer and the answer given. He prayed with reverence and his request was given.”

This prayer alone has its roots in the garden of Eden, where God and man dwelled together - where they were one. This is what Jesus is asking the Father for - renewed communion with mankind. Interestingly, we see heaven and earth come together in its 26 verses. 

In the midst of immense pressure, this prayer became a well of pure desire, in which the Holy Spirit now labor from - He now takes the desire of the Father found in the prayer of Jesus and labors to make it a living reality in us. The prayer creates a blueprint for the believer, and is the schematic that Holy Spirit is working from - as He forms us into the image of Christ, our hope of glory. At the heart of the prayer is glorification of the Son through His people. 

I believe the Lord is calling His church into glory. He is calling us into a “shining reality,” to where we image the very glory of Jesus in the earth. He wants His glory to fill churches, homes, schools, the marketplace - He wants His glory to fill the earth. There is a door standing open in heaven, and that door is none other than the Son Himself. He is the ladder of Jacob’s dream, the gates of Psalm 24. He is the way into the glory of God. In Isaiah 42, the prophet calls a people into glory saying, “I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness… I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, as a light (of glory) to the nations.”  (42:6). The light that will fill the earth, is the same light we are called to be in this present age.

7 REALMS OF GLORY

I have identified 7 realms of glory (of John 17), that Jesus prayed and called the church into. He prayed for the the glory of Communion, Calling, Consecration, Commission, Community, Conquering, Completeness

I.  THE GLORY OF COMMUNION

We get a glimpse into the communion between the Father and Son. For 26 verses, we get to encounter God talking to God. The fellowship of the Father and Son fuels ours. 

“Prayer is the believer leaning into the fellowship of the Father and Son.”

II.  THE GLORY OF CALLING

“This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”  John 17:3

Jesus declares the calling of every believer, the call to eternal life.  Our primary calling is to know Him. All other ministry efforts is from the knowledge of God. It is the fountainhead of life in God. 

“We extend the Kingdom as we know the King.”

III.  THE GLORY OF CONSECRATION

The call to holiness (being set apart) find its source and strength from the Spirit, the ascended realm. The call of consecration is a call upward. This is why Peter says “Be holy for I am holy.”  “For all who belong to me Now belong to you. And all who belong to you now belong to me as well, and my glory is revealed through their surrendered lives.”  John 17:10(PT)

“They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.”  John 17:16-17

IV.  THE GLORY OF COMMISSIONING

An apostle (apostolos) was a general who would be in charge of establishing their culture in the land. Jesus, the great General from heaven, came to establish His culture (Kingdom) on earth. “On earth as it is in heaven” is His great mission. The great apostle (sent One), can send because He has completed the mission. “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.”  John 17:18

“I have commissioned them to represent me Just as you commissioned me to represent you.”  17:18  (Passion Translation)

We are called to a  commission - “Co” denotes our partnering with Jesus, whereas “mission” is the responsibility of the partnership. 

V.  THE GLORY OF COMMUNITY

Seeing and beholding the (fellowship) unity of the Father and Son is crucial to the koinonia of the church. 

“I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity…”  17:23(NIV)

VI.  THE GLORY OF CONQUERING

In essence, Jesus prayed “Keep them out of the clutches of the evil one” (17:15). He desires that our portion be from His right hand, not from the clinches of evil. 

“Father, I ask that you allow everyone that you have given to me, to reign at our side, for I want them to be where I am! Then they will see my full glory—the very splendor you have placed upon me, because you have loved me even before the beginning of time.”  John 17:24(PT)

In Revelation 1, John sees the feet of Jesus saying, “His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace…” (Revelation 1:15). In Isaiah 6, Isaiah encountered the conquering realm of God, saying “The train of His robe fills the temple.”  It’s in the beholding that we can clearly see the conquering realm of God. 

VII.  THE GLORY OF COMPLETENESS

Jesus even calls us into complete and full joy (17:13).  Ephesians gives us hope of a complete body, when the 5-fold comes into full operation (Ephesians 4). 

“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. 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.”  John 17:23, 26

We, like Paul, labor with Him to bring the body to completeness.

“This is the very reason I’ve been made a minister by the authority of God and a servant to His body, so that in His detailed plan I would fully equip you with the Word of God.”  Colossians 1:25 (Passion Translation)

CONCLUSION

The glory of God has been put on display by the death of Jesus’ body, the resurrection by the Father’s power, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. He is now waiting on His people to manifest this glory in the earth. He is resounding the prophecy of Isaiah, “Arise, shine; for you light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you”  (60:1).  

“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one.”  John 17:22