I. THE SECOND MAJOR REQUEST OF JESUS FOR HIS CHURCH. THAT THEY MAY BE WITH ME WHERE I AM.
A. In the 13th chapter Jesus told His disciples that He was going away and where He was going they could not come now.
1. This brought up the questions of "Where are you going?" and "Why cannot we come now?"
2. Jesus in chapter 14, declared, "In My Father's house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am, there you may be also.
3. At the end of chapter 14, He declared, "I have told you how I am going away, and coming again, if you loved Me you would rejoice, because I am going to My Father."
a. I cannot help but think of this scripture in light of the death of our loved ones.
b. Those who are saved, if we truly loved them, we would rejoice because they have gone to the Father.
B. Jesus expresses this as His will. "Father, I will."
1. We know that it is also the will of the Father. "God is not willing that any should perish."
2. Jesus had been speaking of the oneness between the Father and Himself.
3. So many are asking concerning the Lord's will for their life. Here Jesus expresses His will. That you might be with Him in paradise. In the glory of the Father's kingdom.
C. A great part of any wonderful experience is to share that experience with someone you love.
1. A walk along a stream through the woods.
2. A beautiful flower.
3. A colorful sunset.
4. These are not nearly as enjoyable alone. The joy is in the sharing of these beauties with someone you love.
5. Jesus loves you and desires that you should share the beauty and glory of the eternal kingdom of God.
6. Have you ever shared those beautiful moments with Him?
D. Heaven is a place of indescribable beauty. Paul said it would be a crime to try to describe the beauty with human language.
1. No description you could give would do it justice. We do not have words in our vocabulary, for there is nothing of this material world that can be likened to it. Take the most beautiful sight your eyes have ever beheld, heaven's beauty so far exceeds it that no comparison can be made without doing heaven an injustice.
2. Take the most beautiful sounds you have ever heard, sounds that have excited you to the very core of your being. They are discordant and ugly compared to the sounds of the heavenly anthems of praise.
II. JESUS WANTS YOU THERE WITH HIM IN HEAVEN THAT YOU MIGHT BEHOLD HIS GLORY THAT THE FATHER HAS GIVEN HIM.<</div>
A. In verse 5, He had asked the Father to glorify Him with His own self, the glory that He had had with the Father from the beginning.
1. Peter, James, and John had a foretaste of this experience. There on the mount when He was transfigured before them. Matthew tells us that His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was as white as light.
2. John describes his vision of the glory of Jesus Christ.
REV 1:13 And in the midst of the seven candlesticks [one] like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.
REV 1:14 His head and [his] hairs [were] white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes [were] as a flame of fire;
REV 1:15 And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.
REV 1:16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance [was] as the sun shineth in his strength.
3. Paul tells us that now we see through a glass darkly, but then it will be face-to-face. You haven't seen the full, clear picture yet.
B. Paul tells us that God has highly exalted Jesus and given Him a name that at the name of Jesus every knee would bow and every tongue would confess that Jesus Christ was Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
1. In Revelation, we read of the glorious angelic choirs of over a hundred million, plus millions more as they declare the worthiness of the Lamb to receive the power and riches and wisdom, and strength, and honor and glory and blessing. He tells us that every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, he heard them saying, "Blessing and honor and glory and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever."
2. Jesus wants you to be there to see, to hear, as He is exalted before the universe.
C. This is all the result of the Father's love for the Son. "For You loved Me before the foundations of the world."
1. My greatest joys come from seeing those I love blessed.
2. I am blessed more by hearing my sons praised than I am receiving the praise myself.
3. It thrills me more hearing something wonderful being said about my daughters than hearing nice things said about me.
4. In the same token, you can say something cutting or mean about me, and chances are you will be at least partially right. I will not be prone to respond to what you have said, but just don't touch my wife, or my kids, or you have gained an enemy.
5. The Father is going to bring all of this glory and honor to His Son, because He has loved the Son from the beginning.
6. Because the Son loves you. He wants you to be there when it all takes place.
D. Much of this exaltation of the Son will be taking place in heaven, before the return of Jesus to set up the Kingdom of God upon the earth.
1. Looking at the place of this exaltation in heaven of the Son, it would appear that it corresponds with the beginning of the great tribulation on the earth.
2. Could it be that this is tied with
Luke 21, where Jesus when He was talking to His disciples concerning the Great Tribulation that was going to come upon the earth said, "Pray always that you will be accounted worthy to escape all these things that are coming to pass upon the earth, and to stand before the Son of Man." That standing before the Son of Man as He is being exalted in glory is the thing that Jesus is praying for His church.
III. "O, RIGHTEOUS FATHER, THE WORLD HAS NOT KNOWN THEE."
A. The natural man understandeth not the things of the Spirit, neither can he know them for they are spiritually discerned.
1. This unrighteous world does not know the righteous Father.
2. If they only knew the Father, they would not do the things that they are doing.
3. It is awesome to consider that some day they will have to face the righteous Father.
a. Imagine standing before God with all of the filth of your sinful life exposed.
b. All darkness has been dispelled, the darkness in which you tried to hide. You stand there in the pure light of God.
4. Thank God that will not be the case for the child of God. We will stand in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
B. "But I have known Thee."
1. This is why the words of Jesus are so important for us to hear and heed.
2. When I hear someone tampering with the words of Jesus I cringe.
3. This professor of religion at U.S.C. who declared that he knew more than Jesus about the writing of the book of Isaiah, for Jesus was not privy to the modern day scholarship.
a. It will be interesting to hear him when he is standing before God giving an account of all his learning, and his leading astray the students who have passed through his class, by destroying their faith in the word of God.
b. I will take the authority of Jesus over all of the scholarship of man. He knows the Father.
C. Concerning His church, He declares, "And these have known that You have sent Me."
1. Do you know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who God has sent into the world?
Verse-Reference
Square — [Jhn 1:1 KJV]
Abbreviate Books
Use SBL Abbrev.
