 If you guys turn to John chapter 17, John chapter 17, I'll read those five verses, we're only going to be looking at five verses for our Good Friday message and so I'll be looking at these five verses today. John the apostle who wrote this gospel, he writes this, Jesus spoke these words, lifted his eyes, lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father the hour has come, glorify your son that your son may also glorify you and you have given him authority overall flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him and this is eternal life that they may know you the only true God in Jesus Christ whom you have sent I have glorified you on earth I have finished the work which you have given me to do and now oh Father glorify me together with yourself with the glory which I had with you before the world began we hear it often T G I F not the restaurant but people will say thank God is Friday now most people that have that motto when they get to Friday they're not looking to a Friday to give God the credit to ascribe any kind of worth to God especially Friday today right Good Friday perhaps you're here today and you're not even a Christian and you were brought here by your coworker you were brought here perhaps by a neighbor whatever but you're sitting here you're like yeah Good Friday I just look forward to two days to just hang out and relax and do my own thing well for us Christians T G I F means a lot to us especially today of what happened 2000 years ago we truly thank God it's Friday and because of what Jesus did on the cross for us and so when it comes to that whole thanking God I think it's very important for us as Christians that our weekend starts off with the crucifixion leads us up to Sunday which is the resurrection of Jesus Christ's I was asked by somebody recently they said Robert why is it called Good Friday why do you guys call it good even the secular mind understands that what happened to Jesus was horrible right I mean when you look at the whole thing about the crucifixion wasn't this one of the darkest days in history for one man well what happened to Jesus well the death of Christ was about torture agony betrayal and abuse mentally and physically and so when you look at things like that you think that's evil at its worth worst so how could that be good that sounds like God's day of defeat where do you find the good in the death of your so-called savior Jesus Christ a lot of people will think that and they're wonder well what do you mean by that well when you look at the word good you define it with the Webster's dictionary good is defined as something or someone being morally excellent virtuous righteous pious and so for us as Christians to get past the torture to get past the agony we have to do one thing and that is survey the cross what do I mean by survey the cross where the word survey means to examine with reverence to value to view with a scrutinizing eye or to inspect and that's what I want to do this afternoon is I want to survey the cross why is this cross the death of Jesus Christ so important to us as Christians because a lot of people today that ignored the Christian faith that have nothing to do with Jesus their issue is that they have not surveyed the cross they have not found it to be valuable and as we would say that being a wondrous cross and so when you look at these things you have to understand one thing is that before you become a Christian before you become a Christian you have to survey the cross that means that you must see and understand and appreciate the value for your life because that's the way I came to Jesus Christ I was raised a religious person I've always looked at Jesus on a crucifix always Jesus on a cross and that that's how far I understood basically about God it was Jesus on this cross with nails in his hands and pierced down in his ankles and blood with a crown of thorn and all and that was the God that I understood it was just right there that's where it stopped for me but I didn't realize that the cross meant a lot more than what I saw in this man hanging on this cross I did not survey the cross I did not look at it and found out the value and how it would impact my own personal life and this is what we're going to see here that we're going to look at this in this text are five verses that will give us a good serving of the cross of Christ and so what we look at here in chapter 17 if you're not already there let's just pretend for a moment that you knew the day that you were going to die let we're just pretending here don't freak out and the question that I would ask is what would you spend your time doing the night before your death I think most of us here would gather with our loved ones share memories stories probably meet with people that perhaps you wanted to say hey I'm sorry for where the way I've been or whatever it would be a very personal time for you to meet with people your loved ones to say goodbye to be there with them it would be a time of memories well we come to chapter 17 of John and here we are at the eve of Jesus's crucifixion and what's interesting is that Jesus did not just gather with his loved ones he did something else he prayed Jesus prayed the Lord's prayer we hear about the Lord's prayer a lot and we think of our Father who art in heaven that is a prayer given to the disciples but if you really want to know the Lord's prayer it's John chapter 17 John chapter 17 is an incredible chapter that basically reveals the mind and the heart of Jesus the night before he was crucified what was going on in his mind and this is what we come to now we don't have time to look at this entire chapter I encourage you to do that tonight but these first five verses I believe will give us a good understanding of the value of the cross and what Jesus means to us what we see in the chapter John chapter 17 we see that Jesus exhibits a face-to-face communion with God the Father and all of this leads up to back in John chapter 13 when Jesus washes disciples feet John chapter 14 he says let not your heart be troubled and he began to kind of give him this incredible sermon and then this all leads up to John chapter 17 and Jesus spent just the supper with them he finishes the supper and if you remember it says in John 13 that he took his towel and he began to wash his disciples feet and from there it led all into all these incredible things that Jesus was talking to them about and John chapter 14 about the loving hand to keep my commandments John chapter 15 that I'm the vine and he went on and on and on and then he comes to this chapter 17 and now he reveals his heart he's in prayer the night before his death I find it interesting that in John chapter 17 this prayer here we don't see Jesus questioning God as to why these things were happening to him or wondering what to do next or a prayer of desperation it was a solid prayer with confidence and assurance you know it's interesting when I see this sometimes the uncertainties of life derails us spiritually that we have a hard time concentrating in our time of prayer don't you think it's when we get hit hard in life that we don't focus and that we don't want to talk to God here is our Savior Jesus Christ on the eve of his death he is talking to the Father and he's just not blabbing he's just not just just wasting time here he is praying for three things in this chapter the very first part of chapter 17 of John he's praying for himself what we're going to look at here in the first five verses the second part of this prayer he prays for his disciples and the last part of his prayer he prays for the church us you and me and so Jesus has all these things in his mind before he ascended back to the Father before he was crucified he had the glorification that you're going to be seeing here in a moment he had the actual heart for his disciples for Jesus to keep them safe and to keep them from the evil one and then he begins to pray for everyone after him which would include any born again Christian that's here today that Jesus had you and I in mind what a powerful prayer isn't it and as we get into this here Jesus prays for himself and he begins by saying and what I want to do actually is I want to give you basically four things here I want to pull out four things in these five verses that will show you the value of the cross as we survey the cross the very first thing we see here is that it brought glory to God it brought glory to God notice what he says there in verse one the very first thing he says Jesus spoke these words lifted up his eyes to heaven the very first thing he says here is is that his prayer is about the attitude of the heart he looks up he doesn't close his eyes there's nothing wrong with that prayer is more about the attitude of the heart than a certain posture Jesus did not look to his disciples for help he did not look to the Romans for help he looked up he looked to the father in Matthew chapter six verse 41 it says when he had taken the five loaves and the two fish he did the same thing again he said he looked up to heaven why did he look up to heaven because Jesus came to do the father's will his accountability was to the father not to the disciples or to any religious leader at the time he came to do the father's will and so he says to them father or he says to God the father the hour has come the hour has come this speaks of timing because if you know the gospels as you go through the gospels at the beginning Jesus would say to Mary he would say to his disciples my hour has not come yet my hour has not come yet my hours and he would say that and now here we see Jesus saying father the hour has come the first events occur which begin the process that leads Jesus to death as we see here and so what happens here what Jesus says to the father the hour has come the hour to die on the cross for the sins of the world what does that mean to us it means this Jesus willingly gave up his life for you it wasn't an accident he actually died willingly he came here to do that and it wasn't an accident it was planned in eternities you're going to see here in a moment even when Jesus was with the with the 12 when he was 12 years old he already knew his mission you can look at look at that in Luke chapter 2 when he was left behind and he stayed behind with the religious leaders his mom and dad were looking for him and they rebuked him and said son why have you done this to us and Jesus said don't you know that I have to be about my father's business what father Joseph a carpenter you mean no our heavenly father as a young boy Jesus knew his mission already and so we see here that Jesus makes it very clear that he did not come to live a typical life like you and I are living today on earth it was a different kind of life and he even made that clear to his disciples in John 6 38 for I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me that was the purpose that was the reason so here's where we see the value of the cross he says glorify your son you know the last place you would look for glory is the death of a man on a cross the crucifixion is was a horrible horrible barbaric death and all that went on in that whole process and we see here that the cross equals glory and Jesus accepted this path to glory the cross of Christ's Jesus said this or the Hebrew writer said in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 2 looking at the Jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was said before him endured the cross despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God Jesus endured the cross and I love that part who for the joy that was set before him the joy of fulfilling the father's will completing the father's will and the joy of dying on the cross for the sins of the entire world all of your sins were pinned on the cross it's a transaction that you and I cannot grasp on this side of heaven I believe we're going to really see that when we get into heaven and see Jesus face to face to understand this invisible transaction that took place on the cross and we see here very clearly that what happened here is that the glory was displayed the father was going to glorify the son as the son's heart wanted to glorify the father it was this it was this relationship that they had a deal moody or an out deal moody excuse me it was one of my commentators said this and I quote the cross is utter humiliation to the world but an instrument of glorification in God's eyes so what does the word glory mean well the word glory means to show honor it's what it really means it has to do with someone's estimation or assessment and I want to kind of explain this to you for a moment here just because I think it's good for us to understand what is going on here with the word glorious Jesus is using this word here it means that God has infinite intrinsic worth that's what it means God's character and his essence are worthy of honor and highest esteem when you talk about glory God is glorious when we do worship today I mean even the last song we sang I love that song what we're doing is we're saying that God is glorious his very being is of infinite significance he is worthy of our praise right we're not just singing to a to an invisible God that we don't have any relationship to we're not just singing to a God that we're making up in our minds we are actually singing to the risen Savior and so when we look at this word glory Jesus is properly recognizing the father's value by ascribing importance to him and that was through his death through the crucifixion which is amazing to see this because again the way Jesus glorified the father was by reflecting and demonstrating his character what does that mean it means this that if you want to know what God is like study the life of Jesus you cannot go outside of Jesus to try to learn about God there's no way and this is where heresy begins is when people put Jesus aside and they go on their own journey in trying to figure out God they come up with some weird theology don't they they come up with this God that they're making up a God that they come to they go on YouTube and YouTube videos and they get all their theology from YouTube you know what I mean and it's not the way you're going to do it if you really want to know what God is like you have to study the Gospels that's the life of Christ because apart from Jesus we will be in error and we won't understand God for who he really is Jesus came to demonstrate his character he came to reflect the glory the character of Christ of God the Father here it's God the Father who is glorified for the redemption that came through the Son you know that helps us understand one thing something I believe is very important about God and that is this God can be glorified in times of tragedy trials and hardships God can be glorified in times of tragedy trials and hardships that when you're going through suffering God can still get glory through that did you know that because of who he is and it's interesting here that that Jesus made that very clear throughout his life especially at the time when Lazarus was sick this is what he said in John 11 fort to his disciples as they were there Lazarus is dead he says this sickness is not unto death but what for the glory of God that the Son of God may be glorified through it that's when he says Lazarus come forth and Lazarus comes forth out of the grave that would have blown you away wouldn't it could you imagine being in a funeral and somebody stands up in the crowd and says John come forth and he gets up out of that coffin and he walks up yes what's going on you would run out your hairs would stand up right you would totally faint probably but you see Jesus said I'm going to bring glory through this death and of course he gave them some really radical and that was bringing them back from the dead and notice that in Romans chapter 5 verse 3 Paul himself said this about trials he says and not only that but we also glory in tribulations knowing that tribulation produces perseverance and this Paul was in prison writing this letter so Jesus prays he prayed to glorify the father in his death and if the father glorifies the son then the father's express opinion of Christ is that he is essentially worthy of praise and honor and that is what's going on here in this relationship that the father and the son are having here in the very first verse Jesus said in John 12 32 and if I am lifted up from the earth will draw all peoples to myself the father getting glory for that the desire of Jesus Christ here was to be faithful in the face of suffering and death and this is what we see here so the very first thing as we survey the cross one it brought God glory the second thing that I want to tell you and give you is that we can settle our eternal destiny that through the cross you can settle your eternal destiny that means that you don't have to worry anymore whether you're going to be in heaven or not you ask somebody on the street perhaps if they're being honest and you say to them hey um if you were to die today do you think you'd be in heaven if they were honest they'd probably look at you and say I don't know I really don't know see the cross of Christ brings you and I the opportunity it gives us the opportunity to settle our eternal destiny how do I know that look what Jesus said here he said this he says you have given him authority over all flesh and he says that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him Jesus Christ possesses eternal life it's in him and it's interesting here that he's saying that I have this authority Jesus was giving the authority to rule all flesh he's has the authority to say yes you are saved and it's interesting because he said this in in the last part of the Matthew chapter 28 before the disciples went out you know in their in the great commission Jesus said to them Matthew 28 18 all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth he's reminding them of the authority and so what we see here is that one of the ways Jesus glorified the father on earth was by offering the free gift of eternal life by the free gift of eternal life eternal life is a free gift it is free God doesn't charge people for eternal life John 3 16 for God so loved the world that he gave that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life whoever believes are you a believer today eternal life is free there there there are no conditions see religion puts conditions on their salvation in order for you to be saved you have to come here every day or you have to do this or you have to do that and there's conditions because religion is man made Jesus made it clear here salvation is free you don't have to work for it God says just receive it it's yours if you believe in what I did on the cross for you you know it says in Revelation 22 17 at the end of that whole great tribulation it says in the spirit and the bride say come and let him who hears say come and let him who thirsts come whoever desires let him take the water of life freely freely you know many years ago I was working with this coworker who was a religious man and I had opportunities to share the gospel with this young guy and he would mock me he would call me Reverend Roberts I hated that but it would be a mockery and one time I said dude don't call me that I'm not to be revered here you know and one day I said to him dude you have to get your life right with God you must be born again you got to get yourself saved you got to be you know get that eternal life and he looked at me and he said Robert what does it mean to have eternal life to be honest with you he got me there I'm like okay let me go back home let me look and I'll get back to you he stopped me at the time I was going to Bible college and I was getting all this knowledge and all of that but but I did not have it down oh you're right what does it mean to have eternal life he was being genuine he was being serious and left this guy hanging and I felt bad I love that Jesus defines what that is here in the next part of John chapter 17 notice what he says what is eternal life Jesus said it's this this is eternal life that they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent the definition what it means to have eternal life is here in John chapter 17 verse 3 to know you see most Christians think that eternal life is just going to heaven when you die that is true don't get me wrong but we only think about it as fire insurance right as long as I just get to heaven that's all I want to know just just confirm that here right but listen it's not just that it's certainly true but it's more it's more than a free pass to heaven eternal life is an unending life with Jesus Christ Jesus heaven is all about Jesus when you and I die and we're before God as a born again Christian you are not going to be judged for your sins you'll be given rewards and whatnot but you are going to go straight to the arms of Jesus straight to the face of Christ the one who saved you isn't that awesome it's heaven is not going to be like like Ted Turner said many years ago I don't want to go to heaven I don't want to be going from cloud to cloud with a harp that's not heaven that's when he said I'd rather be in hell parting with my friends well you're settling your eternal destiny on that one heaven is not that way people think don't please don't don't let Hollywood form your theology when it comes to heaven and please because when I talk to Christians and they start talking about heaven I'm like that was from that movie that was from that movie that was from that movie wait a minute oh hold on let's what does the Bible say heaven is about Jesus it's about his presence in heaven it's about living this life that never dies in a realm that is outside of time and space we are going to be in heaven forever with Christ he is going to be the person that we're going to see now of course we're going to see other people we're going to see our loved ones we're going to see Peter we're going to see Paul we're going to see a lot of other saints there that passed away but it's about Jesus and that's what Jesus said this eternal life he said is that they may know you it's about knowing God refers to a personal knowledge of God the Father and Jesus Christ I mentioned earlier that most religions most religions world religions will offer people an impersonal God you you can come to us but but but the God that you're going to serve here in this institution in this organization is a God that you're not going to have any personal relationship with it's going to be you here and God there that's that's all it is there's no relationship Jesus made it clear here that no eternal life is knowing God not knowing about God because people say well I know about God well good people demons say they know God and believe and shudder right it's about knowing God not knowing about God I think that's an argument stopper when people say oh I already know about God I already know about God but no but do you know God and this is what Jesus is making it clear here no care is the idea of knowing by observation and experience the most most effective way to experience God in our lives is by living a life of obedience obeying what he said here in the Bible John 14 21 Jesus said he who has my commandments and keeps them it is he who loves me and he who loves me will be loved by my father and I will love him and manifest myself to him I love that part I want God to manifest himself to me he reveals himself to us reading and obeying that's how we experience the life of Christ in our lives it was deal moody who once said he said I know the Bible is inspired because it inspires me it's true so Jesus said it's to know God and notice what he says whom you have sent again making it clear that Jesus came here on a mission over 40 times Jesus speaks of the fact that he was sent by God the father over and over and over to show these guys and to tell us that Jesus Christ was sent here on a mission from heaven which leads me to the third reason as we look at the cross Jesus came to this earth to intentionally fulfill a good purpose to intentionally fulfill a good purpose notice in verse four Jesus says I have glorified you on earth I have finished the work which you have given me to do past tense you guys notice this is before the crucifixion Jesus is speaking in past tense here before he even faced all the torture and all the things that he went through just a night before this Jesus is speaking of the cross before he even happened and only he can do that Jesus looks back on his earthly ministry and he declares with confidence that he has finished the work he was sent to do to bring honor and glory to the father how did he do this how can he be so confident well Jesus was determined to finish the work he was sent to do he was determined and he made that very clear John chapter 4 verse 34 listen to this my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work to finish his work he made it very clear Jesus declared this even before the cross he was confident that he would do it and he's he's his desire was to please the father by doing his will he was said on doing it again Jesus said in John 12 27 now my soul is troubled and what shall I say father saved me from this hour but for this purpose I came he says to this hour for this purpose made it very clear the fourth thing and final Jesus didn't stay dead this is what we celebrate on Sunday listen to what he said in verse 5 and now oh father glorify me together he says with yourself with the glory which I had with you before the world began in other words I am going back home Jesus understood he was going to die on the cross but he also understood very clearly that he was going to rise again as he is saying I'm going to send back to the father he's made a claim here and that is this that Jesus existed prior to his birth in Bethlehem he existed prior to his birth he existed before the world was even created John chapter 1 verse 1 in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God he was already in heaven because a lot of the you know there's religions out there try to debunk the the historical Jesus and say Jesus was just a man but Jesus Christ was not just a man but he was also God in the flesh and he came here to die on the cross but then he rose again and went back to the glory that he had before it wasn't that God just created Christ out of the human you know population and then he and he's like okay now come back up no he was already in heaven this is something that it's hard to to fathom and understand but this is what Jesus is saying here he looked beyond his suffering to future glory in the Father's presence he was right he's he's going to go back so Jesus came to this earth already committed to obey and to do the Father's will that is why he could say with confidence Father glory if I'm with the glory that I had before the one I had in heaven living a committed life in Christ is obviously a choice it's a choice for all of us we need to make it in advance before we leave the house not at some point during the day you don't wake up in the morning and say okay Lord I'm hoping to commit to you probably around three o'clock today most of us hopefully will pray in the morning and say Lord I want to bring honor to you today I want to commit my my whole life at work at school wherever I go wherever whatever you do now you make the commitment now as you go through your day no matter what happens throughout your day you are staying committed to Jesus where Christians fall is when they don't even think about their walk with Christ and they fall and stumble in the middle of their day wonder what happened here because they never committed beforehand to say I'm going to commit today my life to Jesus I'm going to follow you Lord I'm going to be faithful and Jesus here has given us that example as he came here on a bigger picture Jesus came here obviously to die on the cross for non-christians surrendering your life to Jesus is also a choice that you make in advance when you hear the gospel you count the cost and the things that God is asking the things that God is trying to bring to your attention about his son Jesus Christ what he came here to do uh you know two thousand years ago on a Friday that he came to die on the cross for your sins you see when we look at Good Friday and I've just given you four things that I believe are good for us as Christians why we call it good and why it's so valuable when it comes to the cross and to look at the life of Christ and what was going on in his heart in his mind before his crucifixion in John chapter 17 that he was praying to the Father revealing these deep truths about his person his mission that when we look at this with the human eye Friday was difficult and mournful that is why the world has a hard time understanding you when you share with them about Jesus dying on the cross and why this is a good Friday they look at you like you're nuts where do you see glorification out of a death of a man who was tortured but we know that to Jesus it was the day to bring glory to God and to be glorified very clear to the disciples Friday left the future in shambles they didn't know what was going on Jesus is on the cross dying but to Jesus and the Father the future was now secure and confident that what he was doing he was securing them and he was given an eternal life which is settling that eternal destiny that we all need to settle to the human eye Friday is a loss and sad but to the Father and to Jesus it is victory over sin and death it is disarming the enemy the devil and his foes as the Bible says in contrast this day is actually a very good day and it is certainly a good Friday right of all that Jesus did for us I mean without good Friday there would be no Easter morning you just can't hop over to celebrate the resurrection of Christ without first coming to grips with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ today Friday as we survey the cross as we look at the value of the cross as we look at why we call it good and then we look at this and we make a decision to say I want to follow Jesus this is amazing so that on Sunday morning I can celebrate the risen savior because apart from Friday there's no Easter morning without Jesus in your life there's no hope you've heard of Mark Twain I mean obviously a lot of people he's an American writer and he was known for his his wit and charm and he was actually asked to speak he was he went on a road trip in Europe and he was invited to a dinner and to speak and basically it was a big dinner it was it was with a head of state and when his daughter heard about the opportunity that her daddy had to go to this big meeting in Europe to speak she said this to him daddy you know every big person there is to know except God if you know the story of Mark Twain sadly it was true because he was an unbelieving skeptic he had a hard time with Christianity had a hard time with the saints of the Bible he believed in a higher power he believed in a supernatural being but he did not believe in what the Bible said about Jesus and I love that because that is a good question for you today do you know God or do you know about God