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CH Spurgeon on John 17 verse 1 · Waters from Cherith

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  Spurgoen on John chapter 17 verse 1 Verse 1. “These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee.” This was a prayer after a sermon. These words spake Jesus, and then He lifted up his eyes to heaven in supplication. No discourse should be unattended by prayer, for how can we expect a blessing on what we have heard or spoken unless we ask it of the Lord? The sower should water with many a supplication the seed that he has sown, and the hearer should diligently seek the favor of Him who gives bread to the eater as well as seed to the sower. Notice the commencement of His prayer. He began by saying, “Father.” It shows His love to God, His confidence in God, His complete resignation to the divine will, and His sweet acquiescence in it. He is about to be broken in pieces with the iron rod of His Father’s vengeance, but He calls Him, “Father” still. He is about to drink that cup of wormwood and gall, which would have been hell to us if He had not drained it dry, but He says, “Father” still. And herein He sets us an example—in all times of tribulation let us fall back upon our sonship, our adoption, and the fatherhood of our great God. To our Father let us go, for to whom else should a child so naturally fly? Verse 1. “Father, the hour is come.” The first sentence of His prayer reveals His foresight—“Father, the hour is come”—the hour ordained in the eternal purpose—the hour towards which all hours had pointed. The central hour—the hour up to which men dated, and from which they shall date again if they read time right. The hinge, pivot, and turning point of all human history. The dark, yet delivering hour. The hour of vengeance and of acceptance. His expression is, however, very choice. “The hour is come.” His faith thinks it but an hour—the midnight of Gethsemane, the morning of the scourging, the day of the crucifixion—all are but an hour, a short space. Now is He in trouble, for His time of travail is come. But He counts it as an hour for joy of that which shall be born into the world by His grievous pangs. Thus His love and patience make Him despise the time of shame and reckon it but a brief interval. The foresight of which we have spoken makes Him look beyond the hour. You and I look into the hour of darkness, as a frequent rule, and see no further, for our eyes are dim through unbelief. But He goes on beyond the hour, and His prayer is, “Glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee.” He fixes his eye upon the glory that was yet to be revealed, and for joy of that He counts even His death to be but an hour. In all this, brethren, let us imitate our Lord and let us keep our eye, not on the present, but on the afterwards—not on this light affliction, which is but for a moment, but on the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory which will come of it all. The best preparation for the worst hour is prayer. The best remedy for a depressed spirit is nearness to God. Verse 1. Glorify thy Son. The Son of God was glorified while He was dying, and it was one part of His glory that He should be able to bear the enormous load of human guilt. As a race we lay crushed beneath it. A thousand Samsons could not relieve us. Angels and archangels, cherubim and seraphim must have failed to lift the stupendous mass. But this one man alone, unhelped, in weakness of body, and in death pangs—bore away the enormous load of human guilt. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him—the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all. What a load it was! And that He could bear it was indeed a display of His glory. The lost in hell cannot bear the wrath of God. An eternity of suffering will not have discharged the dreadful penalty, and yet He bore that burden in an hour. He was glorified also in the manner in which He bore it, in that He sustained it without shrinking or starting back. There were no angry speeches when He was brow-beaten, and buffeted, and blindfolded, and spat upon. He displayed nothing but gentleness, even when His enemies had pierced His hands and His feet—nothing but triumphant pity and almighty love even when they mocked His agonies. When you think of His physical agonies, of His mental torture, of His spiritual darkness—when you consider that all the powers of earth and hell were let loose upon Him, and when, worst of all, you recollect that the Father’s face was hidden from Him till He cried, “Why hast thou forsaken me?” and yet consider that our Champion, having begun the redeeming work, went through with it, and never drew back His hand from the covenant which He had made, nor flinched under the strokes He bore—I say He was glorious in His passion, and His prayer was heard. God glorified His Son in His death, because in dying He saved His people. His great object was the redemption of His chosen—“Christ loved his church and gave himself for it.” When He died, He did not render the redemption of His people possible, but He ransomed them completely. By His agonies and death He did not merely give a bare hope of the pardon of sin, but He hurled the sin of all His elect into the depths of the sea in that selfsame moment. Verse 1. That thy Son also may glorify thee. In our blessed Lord there was no selfishness. He said, “I seek not mine own glory,” and even in this prayer that word of His is true, for He only seeks glory that He may glorify the Father. In the death of Christ, above all things, God is glorified, for there all the attributes of God are seen. There was the power which sustained Christ beneath His more than Herculean task. The love which surrendered the darling of its bosom that He might die instead of traitors. The justice which would not, could not forgive sin without satisfaction. The truth which had threatened to punish, and did punish—which had promised to give a Savior, and did give Him. The faithfulness to the covenant, which kept that covenant at such a dread expense. The wisdom which planned the marvelous way of salvation by a substitute. Nay, let me put it all together—the wholeness, the holiness of God. Yea, all His attributes are seen, each one equally magnified in the death of Jesus Christ. He is glorious, and the triune God is glorified in Him. Christ’s motive should be ours. When you ask a blessing from God, ask it that you may glorify God by it. Do you pine to have your health back again? Be sure that you want to spend it for Him. Do you desire temporal advancement? Desire it that you may promote His glory. Do you even long for growth in grace? Ask it only that you may glorify Him. If there be aught that you dare wish and pray for, put it so—“Father, bless Your child, that Your child may, in return, bless You and serve You.” God help you to do everything for His glory—to speak to His glory, to live to His glory, to die to His glory, and then you shall rise again, and live forever to His glory.