TOPIC:‌“The Greatest Glory of All”

                 (Good Friday)

                    by Rev. Dr. Reg Dunlap

 

TEXT:‌John 13:21-35

 

“Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him” (John 13:31)

 

‌The words of our text are taken from the scene of the Last Supper, commonly known as the “Last Passover Supper.” Let me reconstruct the scene of this hour for you. The disciples are gathered together as a scared bunch in the Upper Room. Jesus is there with them. When He found the disciples arguing about which of them was going to be the greatest in the coming Kingdom, He showed them by doing the lowest kind of service, that of washing the disciple's feet, that seeking to be a servant is the Christian way to live.

 

Outside in the city of Jerusalem there was a growing sense that something of great significance was about to happen. No one knew what it was. The disciples were puzzled over the way Christ had been talking about going up to Jerusalem to die. There was only one person in this whole universe who knew what was about to take place and that was the One who declared in the words of our text: “The time has come for me, the Son of man, to enter into my glory, and God will receive glory because of all that happens to me” (v. 31, NLT). And Jesus Christ was speaking here of the greatest glory of all.

 

I.

 

Think with me, first of all, of the RELATIONSHIP of this glory as seen in the text with all of the other glories of Christ. Notice again those words of Christ: “Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him” (v.31).

 

‌As we examine and study the life of Jesus, we cannot help but notice many of the other glories that He experienced throughout His life. Consider the glory Christ has back yonder in ETERNITY. In John 17:5 Jesus prayed: “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” It was here way back before time, way back before God created the world, when there was nothing but empty limitless space, that one day Christ spoke and a throbbing universe came into existence. God answered this prayer of Jesus when He was carried back to Heaven forty days after His resurrection.

 

‌When Jesus prayed for His own glorification I want you to know there is no trace of selfishness, or evidence of the desire for His own glorification for personal greatness. On the contrary! Jesus only requested this of the Father because He knew His glorification was necessary for the complete accomplishment of His redemptive work for a lost world. Yes, there was the glory for Christ way back there before creation in eternity. . . .