The Cross - A Life Giving Authority
John 17:3 ~ terry phillips
March 25, 2018
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no asl interpretation available |
Lets turn once again to John chapter 17. We're continuing this morning with our consideration of the opening statements Jesus makes in His prayer to the Father, as we've noted. And I think each of us is fully aware this is a very unique passage, it’s a unique portion of God's word. We are given a glimpse and insight into the intimate fellowship of the Godhead within the Godhead as God the Son prays in the presence of His disciples, prays directly to the Father. This obviously is not long, we’re probably looking now at this point in time, as the Lord is praying here in this 17th chapter, maybe just an hour or two, not more than a few hours before His being arrested, falsely accused and then crucified.
As we noted last time, we cannot doubt the fact that Jesus was deeply grieved in anticipation of the brutal suffering that He was going to endure. The other gospel writers give us some very specific detail inn this regard. We’re told that Jesus is, He acknowledges that He's grieved. His heart is deeply grieved, even to the point of death, and we are told that He even was sweating drops of blood. But it is interesting, and I trust, that we find it greatly encouraging, as we are given a little different insight here in this portion of God's word in John's Gospel. It becomes obvious in this passage as Jesus again is still anticipating this awful moment that's coming. It's obvious that Jesus is also acknowledging, He's recognizing, and He's rejoicing in the fact that there is a grand, divine plan that is going to maximize the shame and the suffering of the cross for an exceptional demonstration of the glory of God. In fact, it will indeed result and inspire pure and unparalleled praise from myriads of multitudes for all of eternity. That's how great this glory is. You go to the revelation of Jesus Christ and you cannot as you read through the different records or the different passages that look forward to the praise that's going to be granted to God the praise that is going to be sung and you see, you cannot help but notice how much of it is focused on this one event, the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus.
So, we've noted that our Lord's prayer begins with this very pronounced emphasis on this matter of the coming glory, the glory of the cross. There is no doubt there's going to be the suffering of the cross. No doubt about that, but there's a glory to the cross and again this is not necessarily something that we would naturally see. We read the account of the Lord's crucifixion, and if we were there, standing there, observing it I doubt if the word glory would have come to mind. Yet this is what Jesus is speaking of. Now the one thing that Jesus emphasizes first as we saw last time and I want to read just these first three verses if we could, as we begin this morning,
“These things Jesus spoke and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said Father, the hour has come. Glorify Thy Son that the Son may glorify Thee. Even as Thou gavest Him authority over all mankind that to all whom Thou hast given Him He may give eternal life, and this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.”
When we look at the Lord Jesus hanging on the cross and suffering in our place, this matter of authority again is not something that it seems to me would come to our minds; the authority that seems at first glance to be most obvious is the human authority. That had been so grotesquely abused as to condemn an innocent man to the worst punishment available. That's the authority we would tend to see as we look at the cross. But as we learn throughout our lives things aren't always what they seem are they. Sometimes the way we look at things initially, or even after we’ve looked at something for a long time, we don't always see things the way they really are. It's interesting to me when Pilate tries to impress Jesus the Lord Jesus with his authority, the authority by which he could release Jesus or crucify Him. Jesus exposes an underlying reality that should've humbled Pilate to the core of his being. You recall a little later on in John's Gospel in chapter 19, Pilate’s frustrated that Jesus won't make a defensible, won’t answer the questions, the accusations that are being hurled at Him and Pilate says in verse 10:
“You do not speak to me. Do You not know that I have authority to release You and I have authority to crucify You? Jesus answered you would have no authority over Me unless it had been given you from above.”
Jesus reminds or enlightens Pilate, if you will, as to what authority is really being exercised in these moments. It might have appeared to Pilate, it might have appeared to everybody who was witnessing this awful spectacle that the authorities, the human authorities in place at that time were the ones who were calling the shots, who had the final say. But that's not the case. Again things aren't always as they seem. Almighty God had granted Jesus the authority to lay down His life. Jesus mentioned this in the 10th chapter of John's Gospel the authority to lay it down and the authority to take it up again. In his selfless sacrifice Jesus was exercising an authority, an authority of staggering proportions. We looked at this last time and I just want to review it briefly.
We notice that it was an extensive authority. “even as thou gavest Him authority over all mankind” the Son of God was not enduring this cruel punishment on behalf of merely one group of people, one small nation, maybe along with a few Gentile stragglers that were near to the land of Palestine. Jesus had been granted authority to accomplish eternal redemption on behalf of sinners from every tribe, and every tongue, every people, every nation; authority over all mankind. We noted last time that Jesus anticipated the extensive authority that would be granted to Him in redemption. He had mentioned this a number of times we looked at John 3:16. John chapter 10, verses 15 through 18, John chapter 12, verse 32 where Jesus anticipates this time when He would be lifted up, and if He would be lifted up. He would draw all men to Himself.
We noted also that it's on the very basis of this redemptive authority that Jesus sends His followers there in the first chapter of Acts just prior to His ascending back to the Father. It's on the basis of this redemptive authority, He sends His followers not only to Jerusalem, Judea, the land of Palestine, but to the remotest parts of the earth.
We noted last time as well it was a sovereign authority that God granted to the Lord Jesus. Jesus, and this again is in the context of His anticipating this coming glory, even as Thou gavest Him authority over all mankind that to all whom Thou hast given Him. There's a sovereign authority that is evidenced also in the agony of the cross. We noted this as well last time, that God's redemptive work on the cross was not an impulsive act on God's part. It was not as though God was distraught in the fact that He could not get sinners to come to Himself, they would not listen to Him, that they would not seek Him. God had a purpose. He had a very specific intention. God had granted the Lord Jesus an authority over all those from every tribe and tongue people and nation whom the Father had given to the Son. God bestows much mercy and grace upon all sinners. In many ways. But God has a specifically effectual redemptive plan steadfastly determined before the foundation of the world and what Paul says just as He chose us in Him, just as He chose us in Christ and this before He even created the earth.
Now this morning we want to look and we just mentioned it briefly last time, at a third aspect of the Lord's authority that is mentioned here and that is that this authority granted to Him was and is a life giving authority. Even as Thou gavest Him authority over all mankind that to all whom Thou hast given Him, He may give eternal life. The redemptive authority that was granted to the Lord Jesus Christ and His personal sacrifice on the cross includes a prerogative of really inconceivable magnitude, the imparting of life everlasting. Think about that, the imparting of life everlasting, that to all whom Thou hast given Him, He may give eternal life. Can you think of an authority greater than this? To grant to sinners, to those who are dead in their trespasses and sins, life everlasting. Jesus spoke of this authority early on in His ministry. John chapter 5 verse 26:
“just as the Father has life in Himself, even so, He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself,”
And then I’d mentioned it, I think last time, this really is a view that provides for us, really, it sets, if you will, all of human history, into its proper context. I love how Paul puts it in I Corinthians chapter 15 verse 45:
“so also it is written, the first man Adam became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.”
The first Adam, here's the way that you can see, this in the context in which we can see all of humanity. Adam, at the very beginning, the first man became a living soul. The last Adam, the culmination of humanity in Christ became a life giving Spirit. Jesus's ability and His authority to impart eternal life is very well established in John's Gospel. Actually, this whole matter of life is a great theme not only in John's Gospel, but in the first epistle of John as well, great theme of this beloved apostle, beloved disciple and apostle.
You recall, in the very first chapter in the first few verses, John establishes the fullness of Christ’s deity: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, all things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being in Him was life. John chapter 6 verse 35 Jesus declares himself to be the bread of life. Later on that same sixth chapter, you recall when after the Lord's discourse in that chapter. Many who had been following the Lord left Him they were following Him no more. Jesus turns to his disciples, to the 12, we’re told and He says in verse 67 you do not want to go away also, do you? Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. John chapter 11 verse 25 Jesus says to Martha, I am the resurrection and the life.
In a passage that I know is very familiar to us in that 14th chapter that we went over not too awful long ago. The sixth verse I am the way the truth and the life. Jesus is uniquely qualified to impart life. His life in Himself, He is the bread of life. He's the only one who can really truly speak the words of eternal life. He is the resurrection and the life. It's through the cross. The cross is the exclusive means of this being made possible for sinners. I think this is the one thing that we need to recognize as we move on in this passage, the emphasis, the connection, the direct connection that you see between the cross and the imparting of life. That's the authority that Jesus is speaking of here the authority to give eternal life. That's the glory that's going to be seen. That's the authority that's going to be exercised in those moments of His suffering, and ultimately His death. This emphasis is unmistakable, this relationship of the imparting of eternal life to the cross. What does Jesus say to Nicodemus there in the third chapter, verse 15 : That whoever believes… actually I need to back up and go to the 14th verse to set the context: As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up - the Lord again here is speaking of His coming crucifixion - that whoever believes may in Him have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Notice this connection between the cross and eternal life. No other hope for eternal life for sinners.
John chapter 6 verse 51 again Jesus saying, speaking of Himself being the bread of life. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever and the bread also which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh - for this direct connection between His work on the cross His suffering and death on our behalf, and the imparting of eternal life. Chapter 10 you see the same connection when Jesus is speaking of Himself as the good Shepherd. He says in verse 10 of John 10: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep - in the same context later on in the 28th verse He says and I give eternal life to them. - That is to His sheep - and they shall never perish. No one shall snatch them out of My hand - and this is what Jesus is anticipating as He looks ahead to the glory of the cross, the exhibition of divine authority to impart life.
Now Jesus goes on and I want to look especially at this this morning in the third verse, and He says, makes this statement, He continues and He says and this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. This is really an interesting statement when you think about it, very plain, very simple and straightforward, and yet it is a marvelous thing, what Jesus is speaking of here. This is eternal life, that they may know Thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. I'm sure each of you have run into these different situations when you're talking to people and you find out that there's somebody that both of you know, this happens to me oftentimes when I'm talking with customers. And they’ll mention someone's name and they’ll say “do you know so and so?” - sometimes I don't. I don't know who they're talking about. Sometimes I'll be able to say I know who you're talking about. I know of this person, I don't know anything about them, but I know of them. There are to varying degrees, there is an extent to which I may know about somebody, someone brings up someone's name and I can say more than just the fact that I know of them. I know about them. I may even have been introduced to them. I may have seen them. I've heard a number of other people talk about them or say things about them. It's possible to know of someone, it’s possible to know about someone, and sometimes to a rather significant extent, but then there are differing levels on which we can actually know someone.
When someone asked me the question “Do you know someone” it's a fairly general question, I may know of them, I may know about them. I may personally know them, right? You know how that is when you're talking to people. There is even extent to which it's possible that I know this individual to so significant an extent that they have had an impact on my life or continue to have an impact on my life. That's very true of at least several people that each of us know, there are people that have a big impact for a big part of our lives. We don't just know of them or know about them. We know them. They know us. In the case of our Lord. We have come to know the living God through the Son of the living God, we come to know Him as the one who has given us life. This is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent – I want us to just contemplate this just for a few moments this morning. The wonder of the cross, the glory of the cross. In this respect, the cross is where you and I come to truly know the only true God in and through His beloved Son. Think about this. Ponder what took place. What we know about the cross. What we know about God's Christ, His suffering, His death, on our behalf. This is where we really come to know God.
Now I'm not suggesting we can't know God from other perspectives God has certainly revealed Himself to us in creation. He's revealed Himself to us in His word, even through His chosen people Israel. We can go one step, step a lot farther and say we know God, God has revealed Himself in the person of His own beloved Son that is true, it's a marvelous truth. But if you take away the cross there is a whole lot you and I do not really come to know about God. There's a lot we can know about God through creation, through written revelation, even through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the life that He lived on this earth. But in the cross we get to know God in a very different way. A much more intimate way. The cross is really the starting point for everything that matters to sinners - I want to think about that with me this morning - as we begin this 17th chapter and we make our way through the final chapters of the book of the gospel of John, this is going to be the focus. Focus is going to be on the cross. More and more.
It has really been impressed upon my heart that this is a focus we desperately need. We talk about the cross, we talked about our Redeemer and what He did on the cross, we use phrases that almost become cliché to us. “Christ died on the cross for our sins.” We don't even think past the very, very thin veneer of those words when we speak them or we hear them. Yes, Christ did die on the cross for our sins. But what does that mean? What do we see in that? How important is that to me? Right now? This minute? And every minute of my life? Is it that significant? I think many times, at least for myself, my problem is that I compartmentalize the importance of the cross. It tends to be very important to me at certain points in life. Certain moments, or maybe when I'm teaching God's word or I'm studying God's word or talking about God's word with somebody, but how important is it when I got a shovel and I’m shoveling snow or whatever it may be when I’m doing the dishes or doing the laundry? The cross is the starting point for everything that really matters to sinners. I want to start there. I think that's where we have to start - think about that with me this morning. Is there something else that's more important? Is there another point we can go back and say this is the point at which everything that matters to me begins. This is the basis for it all. It is the place where we get the fullest view of the character, the nature and the very heart of the Almighty.
Why do you think there is such an emphasis on the cross? Even in the Old Testament there is an emphasis on the cross. Have you read through the book of Leviticus lately, say, boy, that's a tough book to read through, it is! It is a difficult book to read through. I will agree. But you know what? In the book of Leviticus the greatest, the greatest picture that you have the greatest thrust of that book is the cross. The Old Testament sacrificial system is all centered on, its whole theme is the cross, the Savior, our Redeemer dying in our place. The New Testament is focused intensely on the cross because without that there isn't anything to say. Think about it - without the cross - What is there for us to talk about? We can talk an awful lot about God, an awful lot about man, and our need and God's holiness and his greatness, but without the cross what does it matter? It doesn't. This is why it's so, so very important that when we are talking to people, thinking things through, listening to what other people are saying, when the cross is devalued even devalued a little bit it ought to get our attention, wait a minute! I can't go far from this because this is what matters! It is also interesting to notice that this is the one thing when people began to stray from the gospel; this is the one thing that begins to fade and become diminished. Oh the wording is still there. The terminology is still spoken. You have to have that in order for something to be Christian, right? But the kind of focus that you and I need to have on the cross and must have on the cross is a focus that we have to diligently, diligently cultivate and protect, yearn for it.
You and I should become quite uneasy and unhappy when any length of time goes by, and our attention is not directed back to the cross. I mean, in our living day-to-day. I mean, in our teaching here together. Our fellowship with one another. How many hours can you and I talk together and disregard our Redeemer and His work for us on the cross. It should be very long. Everything! Everything is built upon this one reality for you and I without this there's no sense in talking. There's nothing much to discuss. Especially for those of us who put our hope and trust in the crucified Christ. This is the place we get the fullest view of the character, the nature and the very heart of Almighty God, His holiness, His righteousness, His justice. How can a holy, an infinitely holy and perfectly righteous God pass over sin, we see that on the cross. Its the only place we can find that out. We’ve come to understand this is how that can be. How can God forgive a sinner like me? People will talk about - it's amazing to me how people will when you start talking about this matter of forgiveness and where you stand before God - so many people's confidence is simply this that God is forgiving. God IS forgiving. That is certainly true. But how can He be holy and still be forgiving that's the question. That's the dilemma, is it not? Paul makes this so clear in Romans chapter 3 when he says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God - Every one of us has missed the mark. We’ve fallen short of the glory of God -being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. God is rich in grace, but God is still just. He's every bit as just and righteous as He is gracious, maybe we could say it that way. Paul goes on and says, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness.
The first thing we think of when we think of the cross is love, and that's important. But the first thing Paul deals with in the book of Romans is God's righteousness. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed. - How could God freely and fully forgive sinners, over the centuries declare them to be clean, to be cleansed, to be forgiven? - For the demonstration. I say of his righteousness at the present time that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. When we look at the cross we see the righteousness of God and it’s not just in cold theological or theoretical terms. This is not just an abstract concept. When you see the Son of God's suffering, God's only Son dying, in agony, being mocked and ridiculed. That should give to us a very different view of God's righteousness. How righteous is God? This is how righteous God is. For God to forgive my sin this is what He has to do to His Son. You and I should never lose, this is a view that you and I cannot afford ever be very far from in our minds, the picture of the Lord on the cross, the description of Jesus Christ dying is everywhere in the Scriptures, if you really stop and think about it, if you're looking for it. And it’s a demonstration of God's righteousness first of all. I look at Jesus and I began to realize God is righteous. He's very righteous, is righteous beyond anything I can imagine, but it is also a view of God's love.
Paul goes on in the fifth chapter of Romans, and he says this: for while we were still helpless at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners - that is His enemies, rebels, God haters at heart. That's when - Christ died for us, God didn’t wait for you and I to show at least some inclination toward Him and then it would be worth it for Him to give His son, on our behalf. This is the purest kind of love. You and I are unfamiliar with this kind of love; we do not understand this in and of ourselves. We see people who would sacrifice themselves in certain situations, for a dear friend, for a comrade in arms, for a brother or sister, to spare their life, but this is God Almighty putting His own son to death for the likes of you and I. We are not, by birth and by choice, the friends of God. We came into this world as His enemies, but God demonstrates His own love. When we look at the cross we see the compassion of God. God is pure, He is righteous, He is holy, but He is compassionate and He is forgiving Father forgive them Jesus says from the very agony of the cross. The riches of His mercy are on display in the cross, the unfathomable depths of His love. These are just a few things to help us to begin to think, to begin to ponder, to cast our eyes upon the glory of Christ, the glory of the cross.
The cross provides a transcendent view of the divine nature that nothing else can, I want you to really think about that. We have a tendency when we look at the character, the nature of God and even from a systematic theology point of view, we look at all the different things that we know, we come to understand about God through the many different ways He's revealed Himself to us, but there’s a view on the cross that you can't get of God any other way. I see something in my heavenly Father on the cross that I cannot see any other way. The cross becomes the vista from which I perceive the greatness and the pure goodness of Almighty God. The cross becomes that point of view from which I get a more clear view of humanity as well. This is what we really are. Our sin really is that bad. If it wasn't, He would not be on the cross. Our tendency is to think of our plight in human terms, apart from divine assessment we see ourselves as being flawed, right? Almost everybody will acknowledge that. I'm flawed, I have my weaknesses, I have my bad moments, but rarely will anyone in and of themselves stop from adding that word but, but basically I'm a good person, but I really haven't done anything that bad. You know the routine, you hear this constantly and it is the very same kind of thinking that went on in our hearts, apart from Christ - and would still be going on in our hearts if we had never seen the cross. The cross is the rock solid basis for all legitimate and lasting hope for sinners. Think about that - for a moment.
Without the cross, we have no basis for legitimate and lasting hope. You may have different things that you're looking forward to that are temporal. You may even - and some people do have this – they’ll have sort of an overwhelming sense that it's all going to work out in the end. I talk to people like this - I can think of somebody just not too long ago - Speaking of this, you know their confidence was that when they die they’ll somehow be in a good situation be able to kind of hover over and watch over their loved ones. That's not a legitimate and that’s not a lasting hope. The cross is the only basis upon which you and I can have a legitimate and a lasting, confident expectation for the future. The cross is our only hope for eternal life. Christ's death is our means of life. It's that simple. As ironic as that may sound Christ’s death is the only means of our life. For you and I to have eternal life Christ had to die. There's no other way, when we look at the cross, we ought to be coming into a greater understanding, a fuller knowledge, and we do, but it’s something that increases, it's not something that's static, it's not something that's stagnant, it shouldn't be. Sometimes it becomes that way.
This is eternal life that you and I may know, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent, who He sent to die, not just to die, but to die, that He might give us life and as we see that, as we look at the cross, we come to know more intimately this God of infinite righteousness and holiness. This God of unimaginable love Who has given to us am indescribable gift in His Son. When you and I come by faith to our crucified Savior, we come into real life don’t we? We really live. We begin to experience a newness of life, something completely different than the life we had before a life that we never have experienced before. Nothing quite so as exciting as to see somebody who has come into that newness of life and especially at first to see their one sense of wonder. They actually have a love for what God says, they long to listen to the Lord Jesus. They hear the shepherd's voice and they follow Him. They begin to exhibit the life of God in themselves. You and I exhibit the life of God as we begin to know Him and partake of His life we begin to exhibit that life in our lives. His devotion to us and our devotion to one another, our love for one another, our pursuit, our desire to be holy to be righteous, to be holy as our heavenly Father is holy. These are evidences of His life in us. And one of the things that seems to me to be especially important in this matter is that when my view, when I am constantly alert to this fact that the cross is the basis for everything that matters to me that's going to begin to show itself in the way I live, every minute every day when I'm doing something that I shouldn't be doing. And it shouldn't be long and my view of the cross overrides what I'm doing and I see. Oh wait a minute. This is who God is. This is what I now possess. I possess His life, I’ve come to know Him whom to know is life eternal, and God will be honored. Let’s bow together in prayer as we close.
As we noted last time, we cannot doubt the fact that Jesus was deeply grieved in anticipation of the brutal suffering that He was going to endure. The other gospel writers give us some very specific detail inn this regard. We’re told that Jesus is, He acknowledges that He's grieved. His heart is deeply grieved, even to the point of death, and we are told that He even was sweating drops of blood. But it is interesting, and I trust, that we find it greatly encouraging, as we are given a little different insight here in this portion of God's word in John's Gospel. It becomes obvious in this passage as Jesus again is still anticipating this awful moment that's coming. It's obvious that Jesus is also acknowledging, He's recognizing, and He's rejoicing in the fact that there is a grand, divine plan that is going to maximize the shame and the suffering of the cross for an exceptional demonstration of the glory of God. In fact, it will indeed result and inspire pure and unparalleled praise from myriads of multitudes for all of eternity. That's how great this glory is. You go to the revelation of Jesus Christ and you cannot as you read through the different records or the different passages that look forward to the praise that's going to be granted to God the praise that is going to be sung and you see, you cannot help but notice how much of it is focused on this one event, the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus.
So, we've noted that our Lord's prayer begins with this very pronounced emphasis on this matter of the coming glory, the glory of the cross. There is no doubt there's going to be the suffering of the cross. No doubt about that, but there's a glory to the cross and again this is not necessarily something that we would naturally see. We read the account of the Lord's crucifixion, and if we were there, standing there, observing it I doubt if the word glory would have come to mind. Yet this is what Jesus is speaking of. Now the one thing that Jesus emphasizes first as we saw last time and I want to read just these first three verses if we could, as we begin this morning,
“These things Jesus spoke and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said Father, the hour has come. Glorify Thy Son that the Son may glorify Thee. Even as Thou gavest Him authority over all mankind that to all whom Thou hast given Him He may give eternal life, and this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.”
When we look at the Lord Jesus hanging on the cross and suffering in our place, this matter of authority again is not something that it seems to me would come to our minds; the authority that seems at first glance to be most obvious is the human authority. That had been so grotesquely abused as to condemn an innocent man to the worst punishment available. That's the authority we would tend to see as we look at the cross. But as we learn throughout our lives things aren't always what they seem are they. Sometimes the way we look at things initially, or even after we’ve looked at something for a long time, we don't always see things the way they really are. It's interesting to me when Pilate tries to impress Jesus the Lord Jesus with his authority, the authority by which he could release Jesus or crucify Him. Jesus exposes an underlying reality that should've humbled Pilate to the core of his being. You recall a little later on in John's Gospel in chapter 19, Pilate’s frustrated that Jesus won't make a defensible, won’t answer the questions, the accusations that are being hurled at Him and Pilate says in verse 10:
“You do not speak to me. Do You not know that I have authority to release You and I have authority to crucify You? Jesus answered you would have no authority over Me unless it had been given you from above.”
Jesus reminds or enlightens Pilate, if you will, as to what authority is really being exercised in these moments. It might have appeared to Pilate, it might have appeared to everybody who was witnessing this awful spectacle that the authorities, the human authorities in place at that time were the ones who were calling the shots, who had the final say. But that's not the case. Again things aren't always as they seem. Almighty God had granted Jesus the authority to lay down His life. Jesus mentioned this in the 10th chapter of John's Gospel the authority to lay it down and the authority to take it up again. In his selfless sacrifice Jesus was exercising an authority, an authority of staggering proportions. We looked at this last time and I just want to review it briefly.
We notice that it was an extensive authority. “even as thou gavest Him authority over all mankind” the Son of God was not enduring this cruel punishment on behalf of merely one group of people, one small nation, maybe along with a few Gentile stragglers that were near to the land of Palestine. Jesus had been granted authority to accomplish eternal redemption on behalf of sinners from every tribe, and every tongue, every people, every nation; authority over all mankind. We noted last time that Jesus anticipated the extensive authority that would be granted to Him in redemption. He had mentioned this a number of times we looked at John 3:16. John chapter 10, verses 15 through 18, John chapter 12, verse 32 where Jesus anticipates this time when He would be lifted up, and if He would be lifted up. He would draw all men to Himself.
We noted also that it's on the very basis of this redemptive authority that Jesus sends His followers there in the first chapter of Acts just prior to His ascending back to the Father. It's on the basis of this redemptive authority, He sends His followers not only to Jerusalem, Judea, the land of Palestine, but to the remotest parts of the earth.
We noted last time as well it was a sovereign authority that God granted to the Lord Jesus. Jesus, and this again is in the context of His anticipating this coming glory, even as Thou gavest Him authority over all mankind that to all whom Thou hast given Him. There's a sovereign authority that is evidenced also in the agony of the cross. We noted this as well last time, that God's redemptive work on the cross was not an impulsive act on God's part. It was not as though God was distraught in the fact that He could not get sinners to come to Himself, they would not listen to Him, that they would not seek Him. God had a purpose. He had a very specific intention. God had granted the Lord Jesus an authority over all those from every tribe and tongue people and nation whom the Father had given to the Son. God bestows much mercy and grace upon all sinners. In many ways. But God has a specifically effectual redemptive plan steadfastly determined before the foundation of the world and what Paul says just as He chose us in Him, just as He chose us in Christ and this before He even created the earth.
Now this morning we want to look and we just mentioned it briefly last time, at a third aspect of the Lord's authority that is mentioned here and that is that this authority granted to Him was and is a life giving authority. Even as Thou gavest Him authority over all mankind that to all whom Thou hast given Him, He may give eternal life. The redemptive authority that was granted to the Lord Jesus Christ and His personal sacrifice on the cross includes a prerogative of really inconceivable magnitude, the imparting of life everlasting. Think about that, the imparting of life everlasting, that to all whom Thou hast given Him, He may give eternal life. Can you think of an authority greater than this? To grant to sinners, to those who are dead in their trespasses and sins, life everlasting. Jesus spoke of this authority early on in His ministry. John chapter 5 verse 26:
“just as the Father has life in Himself, even so, He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself,”
And then I’d mentioned it, I think last time, this really is a view that provides for us, really, it sets, if you will, all of human history, into its proper context. I love how Paul puts it in I Corinthians chapter 15 verse 45:
“so also it is written, the first man Adam became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.”
The first Adam, here's the way that you can see, this in the context in which we can see all of humanity. Adam, at the very beginning, the first man became a living soul. The last Adam, the culmination of humanity in Christ became a life giving Spirit. Jesus's ability and His authority to impart eternal life is very well established in John's Gospel. Actually, this whole matter of life is a great theme not only in John's Gospel, but in the first epistle of John as well, great theme of this beloved apostle, beloved disciple and apostle.
You recall, in the very first chapter in the first few verses, John establishes the fullness of Christ’s deity: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, all things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being in Him was life. John chapter 6 verse 35 Jesus declares himself to be the bread of life. Later on that same sixth chapter, you recall when after the Lord's discourse in that chapter. Many who had been following the Lord left Him they were following Him no more. Jesus turns to his disciples, to the 12, we’re told and He says in verse 67 you do not want to go away also, do you? Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. John chapter 11 verse 25 Jesus says to Martha, I am the resurrection and the life.
In a passage that I know is very familiar to us in that 14th chapter that we went over not too awful long ago. The sixth verse I am the way the truth and the life. Jesus is uniquely qualified to impart life. His life in Himself, He is the bread of life. He's the only one who can really truly speak the words of eternal life. He is the resurrection and the life. It's through the cross. The cross is the exclusive means of this being made possible for sinners. I think this is the one thing that we need to recognize as we move on in this passage, the emphasis, the connection, the direct connection that you see between the cross and the imparting of life. That's the authority that Jesus is speaking of here the authority to give eternal life. That's the glory that's going to be seen. That's the authority that's going to be exercised in those moments of His suffering, and ultimately His death. This emphasis is unmistakable, this relationship of the imparting of eternal life to the cross. What does Jesus say to Nicodemus there in the third chapter, verse 15 : That whoever believes… actually I need to back up and go to the 14th verse to set the context: As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up - the Lord again here is speaking of His coming crucifixion - that whoever believes may in Him have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Notice this connection between the cross and eternal life. No other hope for eternal life for sinners.
John chapter 6 verse 51 again Jesus saying, speaking of Himself being the bread of life. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever and the bread also which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh - for this direct connection between His work on the cross His suffering and death on our behalf, and the imparting of eternal life. Chapter 10 you see the same connection when Jesus is speaking of Himself as the good Shepherd. He says in verse 10 of John 10: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep - in the same context later on in the 28th verse He says and I give eternal life to them. - That is to His sheep - and they shall never perish. No one shall snatch them out of My hand - and this is what Jesus is anticipating as He looks ahead to the glory of the cross, the exhibition of divine authority to impart life.
Now Jesus goes on and I want to look especially at this this morning in the third verse, and He says, makes this statement, He continues and He says and this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. This is really an interesting statement when you think about it, very plain, very simple and straightforward, and yet it is a marvelous thing, what Jesus is speaking of here. This is eternal life, that they may know Thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. I'm sure each of you have run into these different situations when you're talking to people and you find out that there's somebody that both of you know, this happens to me oftentimes when I'm talking with customers. And they’ll mention someone's name and they’ll say “do you know so and so?” - sometimes I don't. I don't know who they're talking about. Sometimes I'll be able to say I know who you're talking about. I know of this person, I don't know anything about them, but I know of them. There are to varying degrees, there is an extent to which I may know about somebody, someone brings up someone's name and I can say more than just the fact that I know of them. I know about them. I may even have been introduced to them. I may have seen them. I've heard a number of other people talk about them or say things about them. It's possible to know of someone, it’s possible to know about someone, and sometimes to a rather significant extent, but then there are differing levels on which we can actually know someone.
When someone asked me the question “Do you know someone” it's a fairly general question, I may know of them, I may know about them. I may personally know them, right? You know how that is when you're talking to people. There is even extent to which it's possible that I know this individual to so significant an extent that they have had an impact on my life or continue to have an impact on my life. That's very true of at least several people that each of us know, there are people that have a big impact for a big part of our lives. We don't just know of them or know about them. We know them. They know us. In the case of our Lord. We have come to know the living God through the Son of the living God, we come to know Him as the one who has given us life. This is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent – I want us to just contemplate this just for a few moments this morning. The wonder of the cross, the glory of the cross. In this respect, the cross is where you and I come to truly know the only true God in and through His beloved Son. Think about this. Ponder what took place. What we know about the cross. What we know about God's Christ, His suffering, His death, on our behalf. This is where we really come to know God.
Now I'm not suggesting we can't know God from other perspectives God has certainly revealed Himself to us in creation. He's revealed Himself to us in His word, even through His chosen people Israel. We can go one step, step a lot farther and say we know God, God has revealed Himself in the person of His own beloved Son that is true, it's a marvelous truth. But if you take away the cross there is a whole lot you and I do not really come to know about God. There's a lot we can know about God through creation, through written revelation, even through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the life that He lived on this earth. But in the cross we get to know God in a very different way. A much more intimate way. The cross is really the starting point for everything that matters to sinners - I want to think about that with me this morning - as we begin this 17th chapter and we make our way through the final chapters of the book of the gospel of John, this is going to be the focus. Focus is going to be on the cross. More and more.
It has really been impressed upon my heart that this is a focus we desperately need. We talk about the cross, we talked about our Redeemer and what He did on the cross, we use phrases that almost become cliché to us. “Christ died on the cross for our sins.” We don't even think past the very, very thin veneer of those words when we speak them or we hear them. Yes, Christ did die on the cross for our sins. But what does that mean? What do we see in that? How important is that to me? Right now? This minute? And every minute of my life? Is it that significant? I think many times, at least for myself, my problem is that I compartmentalize the importance of the cross. It tends to be very important to me at certain points in life. Certain moments, or maybe when I'm teaching God's word or I'm studying God's word or talking about God's word with somebody, but how important is it when I got a shovel and I’m shoveling snow or whatever it may be when I’m doing the dishes or doing the laundry? The cross is the starting point for everything that really matters to sinners. I want to start there. I think that's where we have to start - think about that with me this morning. Is there something else that's more important? Is there another point we can go back and say this is the point at which everything that matters to me begins. This is the basis for it all. It is the place where we get the fullest view of the character, the nature and the very heart of the Almighty.
Why do you think there is such an emphasis on the cross? Even in the Old Testament there is an emphasis on the cross. Have you read through the book of Leviticus lately, say, boy, that's a tough book to read through, it is! It is a difficult book to read through. I will agree. But you know what? In the book of Leviticus the greatest, the greatest picture that you have the greatest thrust of that book is the cross. The Old Testament sacrificial system is all centered on, its whole theme is the cross, the Savior, our Redeemer dying in our place. The New Testament is focused intensely on the cross because without that there isn't anything to say. Think about it - without the cross - What is there for us to talk about? We can talk an awful lot about God, an awful lot about man, and our need and God's holiness and his greatness, but without the cross what does it matter? It doesn't. This is why it's so, so very important that when we are talking to people, thinking things through, listening to what other people are saying, when the cross is devalued even devalued a little bit it ought to get our attention, wait a minute! I can't go far from this because this is what matters! It is also interesting to notice that this is the one thing when people began to stray from the gospel; this is the one thing that begins to fade and become diminished. Oh the wording is still there. The terminology is still spoken. You have to have that in order for something to be Christian, right? But the kind of focus that you and I need to have on the cross and must have on the cross is a focus that we have to diligently, diligently cultivate and protect, yearn for it.
You and I should become quite uneasy and unhappy when any length of time goes by, and our attention is not directed back to the cross. I mean, in our living day-to-day. I mean, in our teaching here together. Our fellowship with one another. How many hours can you and I talk together and disregard our Redeemer and His work for us on the cross. It should be very long. Everything! Everything is built upon this one reality for you and I without this there's no sense in talking. There's nothing much to discuss. Especially for those of us who put our hope and trust in the crucified Christ. This is the place we get the fullest view of the character, the nature and the very heart of Almighty God, His holiness, His righteousness, His justice. How can a holy, an infinitely holy and perfectly righteous God pass over sin, we see that on the cross. Its the only place we can find that out. We’ve come to understand this is how that can be. How can God forgive a sinner like me? People will talk about - it's amazing to me how people will when you start talking about this matter of forgiveness and where you stand before God - so many people's confidence is simply this that God is forgiving. God IS forgiving. That is certainly true. But how can He be holy and still be forgiving that's the question. That's the dilemma, is it not? Paul makes this so clear in Romans chapter 3 when he says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God - Every one of us has missed the mark. We’ve fallen short of the glory of God -being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. God is rich in grace, but God is still just. He's every bit as just and righteous as He is gracious, maybe we could say it that way. Paul goes on and says, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness.
The first thing we think of when we think of the cross is love, and that's important. But the first thing Paul deals with in the book of Romans is God's righteousness. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed. - How could God freely and fully forgive sinners, over the centuries declare them to be clean, to be cleansed, to be forgiven? - For the demonstration. I say of his righteousness at the present time that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. When we look at the cross we see the righteousness of God and it’s not just in cold theological or theoretical terms. This is not just an abstract concept. When you see the Son of God's suffering, God's only Son dying, in agony, being mocked and ridiculed. That should give to us a very different view of God's righteousness. How righteous is God? This is how righteous God is. For God to forgive my sin this is what He has to do to His Son. You and I should never lose, this is a view that you and I cannot afford ever be very far from in our minds, the picture of the Lord on the cross, the description of Jesus Christ dying is everywhere in the Scriptures, if you really stop and think about it, if you're looking for it. And it’s a demonstration of God's righteousness first of all. I look at Jesus and I began to realize God is righteous. He's very righteous, is righteous beyond anything I can imagine, but it is also a view of God's love.
Paul goes on in the fifth chapter of Romans, and he says this: for while we were still helpless at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners - that is His enemies, rebels, God haters at heart. That's when - Christ died for us, God didn’t wait for you and I to show at least some inclination toward Him and then it would be worth it for Him to give His son, on our behalf. This is the purest kind of love. You and I are unfamiliar with this kind of love; we do not understand this in and of ourselves. We see people who would sacrifice themselves in certain situations, for a dear friend, for a comrade in arms, for a brother or sister, to spare their life, but this is God Almighty putting His own son to death for the likes of you and I. We are not, by birth and by choice, the friends of God. We came into this world as His enemies, but God demonstrates His own love. When we look at the cross we see the compassion of God. God is pure, He is righteous, He is holy, but He is compassionate and He is forgiving Father forgive them Jesus says from the very agony of the cross. The riches of His mercy are on display in the cross, the unfathomable depths of His love. These are just a few things to help us to begin to think, to begin to ponder, to cast our eyes upon the glory of Christ, the glory of the cross.
The cross provides a transcendent view of the divine nature that nothing else can, I want you to really think about that. We have a tendency when we look at the character, the nature of God and even from a systematic theology point of view, we look at all the different things that we know, we come to understand about God through the many different ways He's revealed Himself to us, but there’s a view on the cross that you can't get of God any other way. I see something in my heavenly Father on the cross that I cannot see any other way. The cross becomes the vista from which I perceive the greatness and the pure goodness of Almighty God. The cross becomes that point of view from which I get a more clear view of humanity as well. This is what we really are. Our sin really is that bad. If it wasn't, He would not be on the cross. Our tendency is to think of our plight in human terms, apart from divine assessment we see ourselves as being flawed, right? Almost everybody will acknowledge that. I'm flawed, I have my weaknesses, I have my bad moments, but rarely will anyone in and of themselves stop from adding that word but, but basically I'm a good person, but I really haven't done anything that bad. You know the routine, you hear this constantly and it is the very same kind of thinking that went on in our hearts, apart from Christ - and would still be going on in our hearts if we had never seen the cross. The cross is the rock solid basis for all legitimate and lasting hope for sinners. Think about that - for a moment.
Without the cross, we have no basis for legitimate and lasting hope. You may have different things that you're looking forward to that are temporal. You may even - and some people do have this – they’ll have sort of an overwhelming sense that it's all going to work out in the end. I talk to people like this - I can think of somebody just not too long ago - Speaking of this, you know their confidence was that when they die they’ll somehow be in a good situation be able to kind of hover over and watch over their loved ones. That's not a legitimate and that’s not a lasting hope. The cross is the only basis upon which you and I can have a legitimate and a lasting, confident expectation for the future. The cross is our only hope for eternal life. Christ's death is our means of life. It's that simple. As ironic as that may sound Christ’s death is the only means of our life. For you and I to have eternal life Christ had to die. There's no other way, when we look at the cross, we ought to be coming into a greater understanding, a fuller knowledge, and we do, but it’s something that increases, it's not something that's static, it's not something that's stagnant, it shouldn't be. Sometimes it becomes that way.
This is eternal life that you and I may know, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent, who He sent to die, not just to die, but to die, that He might give us life and as we see that, as we look at the cross, we come to know more intimately this God of infinite righteousness and holiness. This God of unimaginable love Who has given to us am indescribable gift in His Son. When you and I come by faith to our crucified Savior, we come into real life don’t we? We really live. We begin to experience a newness of life, something completely different than the life we had before a life that we never have experienced before. Nothing quite so as exciting as to see somebody who has come into that newness of life and especially at first to see their one sense of wonder. They actually have a love for what God says, they long to listen to the Lord Jesus. They hear the shepherd's voice and they follow Him. They begin to exhibit the life of God in themselves. You and I exhibit the life of God as we begin to know Him and partake of His life we begin to exhibit that life in our lives. His devotion to us and our devotion to one another, our love for one another, our pursuit, our desire to be holy to be righteous, to be holy as our heavenly Father is holy. These are evidences of His life in us. And one of the things that seems to me to be especially important in this matter is that when my view, when I am constantly alert to this fact that the cross is the basis for everything that matters to me that's going to begin to show itself in the way I live, every minute every day when I'm doing something that I shouldn't be doing. And it shouldn't be long and my view of the cross overrides what I'm doing and I see. Oh wait a minute. This is who God is. This is what I now possess. I possess His life, I’ve come to know Him whom to know is life eternal, and God will be honored. Let’s bow together in prayer as we close.
