Kavod | John 17:1-5

INTRODUCTION

Open your Bibles to John 17. We are in this portion from John 13-17, which is known as the upper room discourse. In John 17:1-5, we witness Jesus’ profound prayer to the Father, often called the High Priestly Prayer. Jesus prays for His glorification, which leads to His journey to the cross and the resurrection.

John 17 can be divided into three sections.

• v1-5 – Jesus prays for himself.
• v6-19 – Jesus prays for his disciples
• v20-26 Jesus prays for the church, you and me.

Today, we are going to look at: Jesus’ prayer for himself: John 17:1-5

John 17:1-5

Jesus Prays to Be Glorified

¹After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:

“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. ²For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. ³Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true (faithful, trustworthy; in John both the Father and the Son is told as true.) God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. ⁴I have brought you glory on earth (How did Jesus glorify the Father: He revealed the Father by what he said and did) by finishing the work you gave me to do. ⁵And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

This is the longest prayer recorded of Jesus recorded anywhere in the NT.

Jesus looked toward heaven and prayed: Typically, in our prayers, we pray with eyes closed. Jesus looked to heaven and prayed. Jews typically prayed with their head lifted up, eyes open, and hands lifted. His prayer was out loud. If you are married pray out loved for each other. When you do your family prayer, pray out loud for the family. We can pray in silence, but when in public we can pray out loud. Jesus prayed to the Father. We are to pray to the Father, in the name of the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit.

If Jesus prayed to his Father before making any important decision and always, how much more do we need to pray? Prayer is the intimacy with the Father. Prayer is not that we get what we ask for but that we have been with the Father. We recognize his moment-by-moment presence and we ask his opinion in the power of every decision, even the smallest ones.

The hour has come: Five times in the early chapters of John, we read his hour had not yet come. Starting with Chapter 12 you see 5 passages where Jesus says the hour has come. Here Jesus taking about how the hour has come to give his life.

The prayer of Jesus (John 17:1-5) can be summarized into two themes:

• The Gift of Eternal Life Through Jesus.
• The Glory of Jesus Christ.

THE GIFT OF ETERNAL LIFE THROUGH JESUS

John 17:1-5

²For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. ³Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

Jesus is eternal; John 1:1. Jesus is the pre-existent one.

John 8:58 Jesus answered, “Before Abraham was born, I am!”

He can give us eternal life. John 3:16

Jesus gives the privilege of eternal life to all those the Father had given him.

Eternal life in this passage is knowing God. It is the relationship with God by knowing Jesus.

We have eternal life now. Believers are already part of the new age. We already have eternal life.

The result of eternal life:

John 17:24

“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

THE GLORY OF JESUS CHRIST

John 17:1, 5

¹After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:

“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.

⁵And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

Jesus said when he entered Jerusalem

John 12:23

Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

The Trinity Glorifies each other

The Holy Spirit glorifies the Son

John 16:14

He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.

The post-resurrection glorification of Jesus leads to the coming of the Spirit

John 7:39

By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Father glorifies the Son & the Son glorifies the Father

John 17:1, 5

¹After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:

“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.

⁵And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

Glory I had with you before the world began: Jesus is the pre-existent deity. He has always been God. John 1:1, 15; 6:62; 8:58; 16:28; 17:11, 13, 24.

Glory in common English language:

We see something beautiful and say marvelous or glory. It is a common word.

In the Bible, the word “glory” is used in many ways. This word enters into the storyline of the whole Bible.

This is the statue of Rani Lakshmibai (Jhansi ke Rani). She is known as the rani of Jhansi. She died fighting the British in 1858, one of the first women freedom fighters of India. This is not her, this image is a copy of Rani Lakshmibai. This image is her memorial. It honors, elevates her honor, her reputation. In Bible language this statue glorifies Rani Lakshmibai. This statue points to a reality, the physical representation of a person. It glorifies her.

This is statue is the person’s glory. Physical representation of all her work.

Glory = Hebrew kavod

Meaning – Weight.

Glory = Hebrew Kavod

1. Literal: Heaviness, weight. 1 Sam. 4:8
2. Importance, reputation, honor. Ps. 7:5
3. A person’s wealth and possessions. 2 Ch. 32:27-28

1 Samuel 4:8

When he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell backward off his chair by the side of the gate. His neck was broken and he died, for he was an old man, and he was heavy (kavod).

Psalm 7:5

Let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it;

And let him trample my life to the ground

And lay my glory in the dust.

2 Chronicles 32:27-28

²⁷Hezekiah had very great wealth and honor (kavod), and he made treasuries for his silver and gold and for his precious stones, spices, shields and all kinds of valuables. ²⁸He also made buildings to store the harvest of grain, new wine and olive oil; and he made stalls for various kinds of cattle, and pens for the flocks. ²⁹He built villages and acquired great numbers of flocks and herds, for God had given him very great riches.

You see the importance of this king and see his honor or kavod. See his power and riches.

ILLUSTRATION

You enter into you children’s room, you see their glory/kavod. The girls have all the room decked up the girly king of thing. Dim small lights, barbies, make up kits. Then you enter the boy’s room you have all the gadgets, wires. It is their kavod.

This is all about people having glory or kavod.]

But when this word is used in the Bible, it is mainly about God’s glory/kavod.

Psalm 19:1

The heavens declare the glory of God;

the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Everything that you see around in this world, the plants, animals, nature is God’s glory. All reality declares God’s glory.

There is one more thing that uniquely points to God’s glory.

Psalm 8:3-5

³When I consider your heavens,

the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars,

which you have set in place,

⁴what is mankind that you are mindful of them,

human beings that you care for them?

⁵You have made them a little lower than the angels

and crowned them with glory and honor.

Human beings have been crowned with glory. We have borrowed glory. God has crowed human beings with glory and honor.

How do we know that? See the role of human beings:

Psalm 8:6-8

⁶You made them rulers over the works of your hands;

you put everything under their feet:

⁷all flocks and herds

 and the animals of the wild,

⁸the birds in the sky

 and the fish in the sea,

all that swim the paths of the seas.

Human beings are a part of God’s creation that declare God’s glory. But human beings are unique and they have the glory of God. We have an elevated status in the presence of God. We are made just a bit lower than the angels. 1 Cor. 6:3 Do you not know that we will judge angels.

The psalmist David is inspired by the creation narrative about human beings.

Genesis 1:26

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,  and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

The story of the Bible begins with the God of all glory, wisdom and power and creativity that created the universe. God created human beings with a unique role, we have the image of God. We have the glory of God. Human beings are to reflect God’s glory and rule the world and replenish the earth.

Human beings reflect God’s glory just like the statue of Rani Lakshmibai and points to something greater than itself. Human beings point to a real person and also at the same time this image is an embodiment of that person’s glory.

We see in creation that God gives humans a choice of good and evil. They are given this commission as the embodiments of God’s glory and are to make judgment of what is good and evil. Will human beings submit to God for wisdom? What happens? Man and woman choose to do evil. We are given this choice every day in an individual level and corporate level. Instead of being this glorious image of God’s beauty and wisdom, we become this tarnished image by doing things our way. We do evil and do things our way than God’s way.

This is what the Bible talks about humanity. We lost the glory of God. We were made for more than what we currently experience. More of love, more of productivity, more of joy, peace, patience and so on. When human beings are flourishing in full capacity, that is the glory of God. It is an image that points to God for all that exists.

But unfortunately, man fell from God’s grace and glory.

Glory in the OT

In the OT the children of Israel could see the glory of God in the clouds: Exodus 16:10.

Moses wanted to see the glory of God: Exodus 33:18, 20-21

Glory filled the temple: 2 Chronicles 7:1-3

This is why Paul says:

Romans 3:23

…for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

This is where the story of Jesus comes to us.

Jesus is the Ultimate Revealer of God’s Glory

John 1:14

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Jesus revealed his glory through his life and work: John 2:11

What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

How did Jesus glorify the Father?

He revealed the Father by what he said and did.

Purpose of Jesus’ Incarnation?

1. To fully and completely reveal the unseen God.
2. To pay a price he did not owe, because human beings could not pay the price.
3. To give us an example of how we should live.

All of this is connected with glorifying the Father.

But now Jesus’ way of glorifying God is going to be changed from glorifying God in an incarnate state (the word become flesh) to glorifying God by sharing in the moral excellence and value of God in a heavenly status.

In this passage, Jesus is praying to the Father to glorify him.

Jesus’ Glory on the Other Side of the Cross

He is asking the Father to glorify him but what awaits him is shame, abuse, rejection, torture. They spit on his face. This is right after he prayed this prayer, “Glorify me.” They spit on his face and struck him with his fist. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. They twisted together a crown of thorns and pressed it into his head. They put a staff in his hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him, “Hail king of the Jews.” They spit on him again and took the staff and struck on the head and after they mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes back on him and led him away to be crucified, to be tortured.

The Romans invented crucifixion as an exquisite means of torture. No Roman citizen could be crucified. Crucifixion was for slaves and revolutionists against Rome. Jesus was tortured.

This you say is an answer to prayer. What is wrong with this picture? The bigger picture is that Jesus knew that the glory for which he was praying was on the other side of crucifixion and in fact crucifixion was its necessary precursor.

John 17:5

Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

He is asking for glory in the very presence of the Father, not glory here on earth.

But Jesus knew that if you want to enjoy that glory you cannot do so without first enduring the cross. Whoever wears the crown has first to bear the cross.

Jesus’ Glory on the Cross

According to John, there is glory already on the cross. It is not just waiting for the exultation and glorification several days later. But just the way Jesus died, in the way he is buried, in the way Jesus honours God on the Cross are all glorious outward manifestations of the supremacy of the invisible God. That becomes evident in the way Jesus dies on the cross.

Mark 15:39

And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”

The centurion did not have to wait for the resurrection to conclude this. He did not wait for Jesus to ascend to heaven to understand that Jesus is the Son of God. No, you can tell that Jesus is the Son of God by looking at the cross.

See the Glory on the Cross:

1 Peter 2:22-24

²²“He committed no sin,

and no deceit was found in his mouth.”

²³When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. ²⁴“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”

On the cross Jesus prayed, “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Lk. 23:34

How do you pray that when you are in pain and the blood is coming out of your wounds from the nails and the thorns?

How do you have the love to those who hate you?

Finally, Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my Spirit.” Lk. 23:46

Jesus maintains his vital relationship with the Father even on the cross. That is what glory is all about.

Recap:

• Jesus Christ is eternal God. Co-eternal with the Father and the Spirit.
• Trinity glorifies one another.
• He shared in the glory of the Father.
• Jesus came to reveal God’s glory; Jn. 1:14
• Jesus’ glory was displayed in his words, work, cross, and resurrection.

HOW CAN MANKIND HAVE THE LOST GLORY?

1. We Receive our Lost Glory Through Christ.

Jesus prayed for us that we may see his glory:

John 17:24

“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

2 Corinthians 4:4

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

The Gospel displays the glory of Christ who is the image of God.

Jesus is the physical embodiment of God’s glory. He is the pre-existent, creator God embodied in the image of a human. He is a complete and perfect reflection of who God is but he is also a human. Jesus becomes the human that you and I are made to become but failed to be. If I want to know how to be true human, I look to Jesus. We are to become like Jesus.

In Jesus I see the glory of God.

2 Corinthians 3:18

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

The OT law was glorious: 2 Cor. 3:9

We have surpassing glory, glory that lasts in Jesus. 2 Cor. 3:10-11

The Holy Spirit reveals the glory of Christ; 2 Cor. 3:18; John 16:14.

Altar Call: Give people a chance to receive the Lord Jesus as the Lord of their lives.

2. Our present trials Achieved Eternal Glory for us.

Don’t Lose your Heart in our Trails & suffering.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

¹⁶Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. ¹⁷For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. ¹⁸So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Jesus says to the church as Smyrna:

Revelation 2:10

Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.

There is a link between the shameful death of Jesus on the cross and his glorious resurrection and exaltation to the right hand of the Father. You cannot have the exaltation without the cross.

So it is with our own lives, we must die with him so that we will be raised with him.

Job 13:15

Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him;

Apostle Paul says that we can also imitate Jesus in our bitterness

2 Corinthians 4:7-9

⁷But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. ⁸We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. ¹⁰We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

Every time you are in some affliction or pain or you experience a setback, that is where the glory of God is manifest. That is the resting beauty of God and his power manifest in your life.

3. The Disciple’s Fruit Bearing Glorifies the Father

John 15:8

This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

CONCLUSION

Jesus Christ restores the glory we lost through sin. In Him, we see God’s perfect image and are transformed into His likeness. Trials are part of our journey; they refine us and achieve for us an eternal glory far greater than our current struggles. Do not lose heart—trust in Jesus, who endured the cross for our salvation. Today, examine your life: are you producing fruit that glorifies God? Surrender to Christ, hold on through trials, and let your life reflect His glory. Believe in Him and experience the fullness of His transforming power.

Life Application Points

1. Surrender Your Life to God’s Purpose: Just as Jesus sought the Father’s glory through obedience, we are called to surrender our lives to God’s will, even in difficult circumstances.
2. Seek God’s Glory in Your Daily Decisions: Live in a way that reflects God’s character, making choices that honor Him rather than pursuing personal gain or comfort.
3. Embrace Trials as Pathways to Glory: Understand that our sufferings can bring glory to God when we endure them faithfully, trusting in His ultimate plan.
4. Reflect Christ’s Glory to the World: Let your actions, words, and life point others to Jesus, who is the ultimate revelation of God’s glory.