Welcome to Connect with Skip Heitzig Weekend Edition. We're glad you've joined us for today's program. Connect with Skip Heitzig exists to connect you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times through verse by verse teaching of His Word. That's why we make messages like this one today available to you and others on air and online. Before we kick off today's teaching, we want to let you know that you can stay in the know about what's happening at Connect with Skip Heitzig when you sign up for email updates. When you do, you'll also receive Skip's weekly devotional email to inspire you with God's Word each week. So sign up today at connectwithskip.com.
That's connectwithskip.com. Now, let's get into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. Jesus said it's more blessed to give than it is to receive. We know that to be true. But we also know that giving can sometimes be stressful, dangerous, even if you're a husband trying to find for your wife the perfect gift.
Let me explain. A man by the name of Herb Forst from New York submitted this little piece to the Reader's Digest of things not to buy your wife. Number one, don't buy anything that plugs in.
Anything that requires electricity is seen as utilitarian. Number two, don't buy clothes that involve sizes. The chances are one in seven thousand that you will get her size right and your wife will be offended the other six thousand nine hundred and ninety nine times. Do I look like a size 16? She might say. Too small a size won't cut it either.
I haven't worn that size in 20 years. Number three, avoid all things useful. The new silver polish advertised to save hundreds of hours is not going to win you any points. Number four, don't buy anything that involves weight loss or self-improvement. She'll perceive a six month membership to a diet center or a health club as a suggestion that she's overweight. Number five, don't buy jewelry. The jewelry your wife wants, you can't afford. And the jewelry you can afford, she doesn't want. Number six, don't spend too much. How do you think we're going to afford that? She'll ask. Number seven, don't spend too little.
She won't say anything, but she's going to think, is that all I'm worth? I also came across something put out by American Express Corporation. They did a survey asking people what is the worst Christmas gift you could ever receive.
I was amused. I was interested to discover that what tops the list as the worst Christmas gift is a fruitcake. In fact, it is higher as the worst gift than even the category called no gift at all. It's worse to get a fruitcake than no gift at all. In the survey, American Express said, what do you do with a bad gift? How do you dispose of a bad gift? Thirty percent said hide it in the closet. Twenty one percent said return it.
Nineteen percent said give it away. So now I'm thinking back to the fruitcake. There's a good chance that if you get a fruitcake this Christmas, it's recycled.
Which explains why those things taste so bad. You know, I'm just putting it all together. It's not easy for us to find the perfect gift. It's no problem for God to find the perfect gift. God knows exactly what we need. Now, all of that is an introduction for what we're about to look at in John 17, because in this chapter, the word give or given in one of those two forms is found no less than 17 times in this single chapter.
So it is a major theme. We're going to look at the first five verses we just touched on. Verse one last week, I mentioned we could spend a year.
I will spare you that going through this chapter, but we will spend some weeks on it. In the first five verses, Jesus asks for a gift request, something from the father. And then he mentions three other gifts that are given to from the father to the son, one from the son to you and I. So these are gifts that keep on giving.
But just notice that word and how often it is used. Let's just look at the first eight verses. We won't go through the chapter, but I want you to observe with me. Jesus spoke these words, lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son that your son may also glorify you.
As you have given him authority over all 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 and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I have glorified you on the 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 was. I have manifested your name to the men that you have given me out of the world. They were yours. You gave them to me and they have kept your word. Now they have known that all things which you have given me are from you. For I have given to them the words which you have given me and they have received them. And they have known surely that I came forth from you and they have believed that you sent me.
And on and on and on it goes through the chapter. By the way, it's OK to pray for yourself. Jesus did it.
It is not unspiritual. Jesus' entire life was marked by prayer generally as well as specifically. Generally, we know that he prayed on one occasion all night.
On another occasion, he got up early in the morning. So his whole life was marked generally by dependence upon the Father, prayer. His life was also marked by prayer specifically. Here he gets very specific. And I think when we pray, we ought to be specific. I don't think a prayer like, Well, Lord, you know every need spoken and unspoken.
So just bless everyone everywhere with everything. We'll cut. We'll cut it.
It won't really do much good. Be specific. What if what if you were to try that at a restaurant? What if you walked into a restaurant and said, I have a general food need. Bless me.
They would know what to give to you. You are specific. You point to a menu and you say this and I'll have that. Jesus is specific in verses one through five. He prays for himself. I mentioned he requests one gift and he mentions three others.
Let's go through them. First of all, the gift of glory. Verse one. Father, the hour has come.
Here's the request. Glorify your son. That your son may also glorify you. Now tie that verse together with verse five. And now, O Father, glorify me together with yourself with the glory which I had with you before the world was.
Now we have a couple of things going on here. Jesus prays for glory and when he does, he has two different things in mind. Number one, he has the glory of the cross.
I'll explain. Number two, he has the glory that will come after the cross. Heaven. That's verse five. The glory of the cross, I think, is mentioned in verse one. Glorify me, Lord Father. The hour has come. Glorify your son that your son may glorify you. He is thinking, and we touched on this last week, the glory moment of the cross has come. Father, we have planned this since the beginning of time. And now we're here. This is it. It's glory hour. It's the time for the countdown.
Let's get on with it. Because he knows that his dying on the cross will open the door to the salvation of millions of people for the next few thousand years. So he prays for the glory of the cross. Now you might be thinking, how is the death of Jesus Christ glorious?
Well, you know, that's not really hard to understand even from a human viewpoint, is it? Some men are not appreciated until after they die. They're not appreciated in life, but if they give their life as a soldier or for some cause, once they die, they are nobler in death than they ever imagined being in life. Abraham Lincoln had lots of enemies, very vocal enemies. One was his minister of war, Edwin Stanton, who made no bones about criticizing the president publicly on many occasions, called him a crude and an uncouth man. But when Lincoln was shot and Edwin Stanton stood over the body of Abraham Lincoln with tears in his eyes, he looked down and he said, there lies the greatest leader of men this world has ever seen. What Stanton did not acknowledge in life, he now acknowledged in Lincoln's death. When Jesus died on the cross, there was a centurion who watched the whole thing. And as soon as Jesus was dead, he said, surely this man was the son of God. He didn't say that while he was alive. He didn't see that while he was alive, but now he sees it. So that's not hard to understand how a person in death can be seen as more glorious. But that's not really the glory of the cross that Jesus is speaking of. What he is speaking of is the fact that this will bring God ultimate glory because it will demonstrate once and for all that there is no limit to which God would go in demonstrating his love. That his mercy, his kindness, his grace, his love will even go to the nth degree. You see, if Jesus would have just come to this earth and stopped short of the cross, let's say he would have come to this earth and just smiled a lot and pet little kids on the head and said a few nice words and lived an exemplary life and did not die on a cross, then we could say, aha, there is a level of love to which God will not go for us. He will not die. He will not give his life. He will not sacrifice his son.
But now it's different. Now we can see the father who would look down at his son as he's on a cross, bleeding, covered with the spit of the men he came to save, and we go, his love knows no limit. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig, Weekend Edition. Before we return to Skip's teaching, start 2025 off right, exploring the richness of God's word with Pastor Skip's book, The Bible from 30,000 Feet, and accompanying workbook. These resources offer an aerial view of scripture covering all 66 books of the Bible with a unique flight plan, facts, landmarks, itinerary, gospel, history, and travel tips.
They're a perfect tool to help you enrich your Bible study and apply its teachings to your daily life. You'll explore every book of the Bible with Pastor Skip's insightful flight plan, while the workbook provides exercises and questions to guide your reflection. We'll send you The Bible from 30,000 Feet book and workbook as our thanks for your gift of $50 or more to reach more people with God's love through Connect with Skip Heitzig.
Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer, or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy when you give. Now let's get back to Skip for more of today's teaching. And truly we would say what Paul the Apostle said in Romans chapter 8. If God did not spare His only Son but gave Him up for us, how will He not then freely give us all things?
If He will give us that gift, sky's the limit. Glorify your son. That's the first meaning of the gift of glory.
The second is different. Look at verse 5 a little more carefully. Now Father, glorify me together with Yourself with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
He's talking now about a prehistoric, pre-existent glory that He shared with the Father. It's hard for us to imagine. We can only dimly imagine what it's like to leave heaven and come to earth. The closest I ever came is the time I went to India. I've never been to a third world country. I've been to other places. I've never been to a third world country.
And India is as third world as they get. When we were flying into Mumbai, which used to be called then Bombay, I remember as we were flying in, I said to a passenger, I said, Now we're way up in the air. We're still circling. I said, What is that smell right up in the sky? He said, You are smelling the city of Mumbai.
I said, You've got to be kidding. He goes, There's a slum down there with over one million people just in the slum, not the city. There's millions in the city. Just the slum of this city has over a million people. And I did a little research. It so congested that slum that in some places there's 18,000 people per acre living on top of each other in little plastic bag walls and cardboard walls and the squalor and the feces in the streets next to their water supply.
And it's just unbelievable to touch down and then to walk. And I walked through those slums. And I thought, This is their daily existence. It's only my temporary inconvenience, but it's their daily existence. And I thought, I cannot wait to leave this place.
I want to go back home. I'd never known. All I knew was America. OK, so now that's just a dim little insight into leaving the glories of heaven and coming to a feeding trough. That's what a manger is, a feeding trough of animals in Bethlehem to go from glory from the throne to the manger.
And it's much more than just that. It's what Jesus had to put up with for 33 years, what he had to see in terms of rebellion and sin and hatred against God and his ways and certainly against himself as God's son. Jesus came into his own, the Bible says, his own people and his own did not receive him. So here is Jesus longing for that glory back, longing to go back to where he had come from, the glories of heaven. That's what he knew.
That was home turf. Sometimes we get a little glimpse into the glory of Jesus while he was on earth. Think back to the transfiguration in Matthew 17. Remember the story Jesus takes a few of his disciples and on top of a high mountain he is transfigured with Moses and Elijah?
This is what the Bible says. Jesus' appearance changed so that his face shone like the sun and his clothing became dazzling white. We read that and go, wow, that's a miracle. How cool would that be to see the miracle?
I look at it differently. I don't think it was a miracle that he shined then. I think it was a miracle that he didn't shine all the time.
But it just leaked out every now and again, like here. That's the glory he longed for in verse 5. Question. Did the Father answer his prayer? Oh, yes, he did. Jesus died, rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and Paul the apostle said in Philippians 2, God has highly exalted him and given him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue should confess. The first martyr, Stephen, when he was about to be stoned, the Bible says he looked up and he saw heaven open and he said, look, I see Jesus standing at the right hand of God. He saw him in his glorified state, not his earthly state. And when we get to heaven, Revelation chapter 5 tells us what the anthem of heaven will be like. Worthy is the Lamb, here's the glory, worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. And every creature in heaven, on earth and under the earth and as such as are in the sea and all that is in them, I heard saying, blessing and honor and glory and power to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever.
Now put verse 5, couch verse 5 now in that. Give me the glory that I had with you before the world ever was. Fast forward, there's coming a day in heaven when the new Jerusalem will be the capital city and John said, that city has no need of sun or moon for the glory of God illuminates it and the Lamb is its light. So why is Jesus longing for that glory? Because that's home, man, that's his home turf, that's his environment, that's what he knew. That's why he referred, we call it heaven, he referred to it as my Father's house.
In my Father's house there are many mansions. God, I want to glorify you and then I want to go home. That's what he's praying. And today, that's where he is, he's back home. And he's made a promise to you. He said, I am going to prepare a place for you. Now this is what I want you to just think of. If Jesus Christ who had come from glory to the earth for 33 years in a temporary situation longed to go back to glory, longed to go back to heaven, just think about that if you have a loved one who has died or is dying who is a believer.
That's what they're going to. If Jesus knew what it was like and he longed for it with that kind of depth, how cool it must be. That's why I believe, I've said it before, but I believe it that the last breath on earth as labored as it might be, as painful as it might be, and I've watched my own family take those last breaths, I'm convinced that if they know Christ, immediately their next breath is wow, something like that. I've heard people say, oh, heaven's going to be so boring. I don't want to sit on a cloud and play a harp. Guess what? I don't either. A guitar maybe, a harp, no.
A ukulele, I can do that, but not a harp. It's not going to be boring. It's going to be glorious. That's why when people who know Christ die, I am sad not for them. I'm sad for the family. I'm sad for us. I'm sad for the loss, but for that person who is in the presence of God, I envy them. I don't go, that poor person, he dies in heaven. Oh, yeah, I'm real sad for that. I cannot be sad. The worst thing that happened to them turned out to be the best thing. They're in glory. We suffer.
I'm not minimizing that, but not that person. This then is the gift of glory that Jesus prays for. He mentions three others. Here's the second, the gift of authority, verse 2. As you have given him, that is, you, Father, have given the Son, Him, authority over all flesh.
Stop right there. This is a gift Jesus in prayer acknowledges the Father has given Him, authority over all flesh. How much authority did Jesus have over all flesh? Good answer, all, because before He leaves the earth, Matthew 28, He says to His disciples these words, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
That covers it all, every bit of it. Think of the authority that was displayed in Jesus' life. First of all, when Jesus taught people, He taught with authority. He gave the Sermon on the Mount, and in Matthew 7, at the very end, it says these words, and the crowds were amazed at His teaching because He taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.
We're glad you joined us today. Before you go, remember that when you give $50 or more to help reach more people with the gospel through Connect with Skip Heitzig, we'll send you Pastor Skip's book, The Bible from 30,000 Feet, and companion workbook to help you dive into Scripture in the coming year. This sweeping aerial view of God's Word will help you understand the big picture with greater clarity and gain a deeper appreciation for God's timeless truths. To request your copy, call 800-922-1888.
That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. For more from Skip, be sure to check out the many resources available at connectwithskip.com slash store.
We'll see you next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's Word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig, weekend edition. Make a connection. Make a connection at the foot of the crossing. Cast your burdens on His Word. Make a connection. Connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
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