We don't often look upon work as a gift.
Rather, we see it as a grind.
We see work as a chore, as a job, an obligation that must be taken care of.
We know there are some times when the two are the same, when work is a gift, or we at
least view it that way.
An example of that would be the person who is unemployed and who is given a job whereby
he can earn money to meet his needs.
He looks upon that work as a gift.
Yesterday I overheard Q.T. Smith after the seminar talking about the work that he does
as a management consultant and a motivational speaker.
By the way, we had a great seminar yesterday.
I think there were 88 people who registered for it.
It was called Listening and Perception, Bridges to Understanding, and all of those who came
were just thrilled by the presentation.
I heard Q.T. say that sometimes he feels a little guilty because he enjoys so much the
work that he's doing.
You ever feel that way?
You enjoy what you do so much that you feel guilty taking the paycheck for it?
Well almost guilty.
There are times when we look upon our work as a gift.
The thing that makes it that way, the secret to that, is that the work corresponds to the
desire of our own hearts.
Am I doing what I really want to do?
Well, if so, then I look upon my work as a gift.
Our Savior looked upon the work given to him by the Father as a gift.
John 17, verse 4, brings us to another of the good gifts of John 17.
In this verse our Lord says as part of his prayer, I glorified thee on the earth, having
accomplished the work which thou hast given me to do.
Our Lord points to the work which the Father had given him to do.
This is one of the good gifts given by the Father to the Son.
Our Lord was grateful for this work, and he looked upon it as a gift given him by the
Father because it perfectly agreed with the desire which was within himself.
The work mentioned here is the work of salvation.
The work of salvation is one of the good gifts given by the Father to the Son.
In this verse there are three lines of truth that are woven together.
I'd like for us just to pick those apart and look at them briefly tonight before we come
to the Lord's table.
First of all, this work that Jesus prays about here, this work was an assignment, but one
he willingly accepted.
The work which thou hast given me to do, it was an assignment from the Father, no question
about that.
God gave him orders, but these were orders that he delighted to obey because they were
orders that perfectly agreed with his own heart and what he wanted to accomplish in
his coming into the world.
It could be no other way, of course, because of the unity within the triune God.
The work of redemption was God's purpose from even before creation.
What God the Father assigned to God the Son, God the Son was eager to carry out.
So I say to you that while the work of salvation was an assignment to the Lord Jesus Christ,
his going to the cross, his suffering, his death, his resurrection, it was nonetheless
a gift from his perspective, something the Father had given him to do.
He was fulfilled in this work because it was the desire of his heart to carry out the work
of the Father in saving us.
John before has given us this same parallel.
If you just look back at a couple of passages briefly, we don't have time to say much about
them, and in John 8 verse 28 it says, Jesus therefore said, when you lift up the Son of
Man, and he's talking here to the religious leaders of the Jews, and he says, when you
lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he.
That's that little phrase that John is telling us in this gospel that Jesus refers to himself
by, the I am.
He says, then you will know that I am he, and I do nothing on my own initiative, but
I speak those things as the Father taught me, and he who sent me is with me.
He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.
So our Lord points to the fact here that his coming into the world, his being lifted up
as the Son of Man, was something that the Father had sent him to do, and yet he says,
I always do the things pleasing to him.
Why?
Because it pleased him, the Lord Jesus, to please the Father.
Turn over in John chapter 10, and again our Lord points to this.
He says, no one has taken it, my life, away from me, verse 18, but I lay it down on my
own initiative.
In other words, he says, I'm doing this because I want to do it.
I have authority to lay it down.
I have authority to take it up again.
And then he says, this commandment I receive from my Father.
So I say again regarding the work of salvation that it was an assignment that he came to
carry out, but not reluctantly, not half-heartedly, not just as an obligation.
It was an assignment that he willingly and gladly accepted because it was in his own
heart to give himself to be the Savior of the world through his death and his resurrection.
And should that same attitude not be the attitude of every child of God, we have an assignment
in this world, but it's one that we gladly carry out because we love the Father.
Now going again to John chapter 17, it seems to me there is a second line of truth that
we can find in this verse.
Not only was the work of salvation an assignment and one willingly accepted, but it was a work
fully accomplished.
Jesus says, I glorified thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which thou hast
given me to do.
Jesus has been moving in the direction of accomplishing that work for a long time.
In fact, as far back in the Gospel of John in the fourth chapter, he talks about it in
the 34th verse, Jesus said to his disciples, this was after the woman had gone back into
the city, you remember, and she was in there saying, come and see a man who told me all
things ever I did.
He said to those disciples who were quizzing him as to who the woman was and what was going
on, he says, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.
So Jesus was on a course, he had a work to do, here he says it's still in the future.
It's not something that he had accomplished at that point, his culmination was yet in
the future.
And we see it accomplished in the Gospel of John in the 19th chapter and the 30th verse
where Jesus cried out from the cross those three words as they are in the English, it
is finished.
What was finished?
His work.
It was accomplished.
That which he had been moving toward all of his earthly life now had been culminated as
he had suffered and bled on the cross and just before he bows his head and gives up
his spirit, just before he lays down his life as he had authority to do, he says it is accomplished.
It is finished.
This work that I was assigned by the Father, this work that is the desire of my own heart,
it is accomplished.
Now chapter 17 comes before chapter 19, doesn't it?
And so even before the cross, Jesus prays having accomplished the work which thou hast
given me to do.
Our Lord as he prayed that prayer the night before going to the cross was placing himself
in time past the cross as though it were already done.
He is praying in John 17 as though he were already back in heaven having accomplished
his work of salvation on the earth now to stand interceding before the Father on behalf
of his own.
That is his attitude.
That is his position as he prays in John 17.
And so in chapter 17 though the cross historically had not yet happened, it was still hours away,
he is saying I have accomplished it Father.
I have finished the work that you gave me to do.
The work of salvation was fully accomplished.
And so Philip Bliss wrote and we sing, guilty, vile, and helpless we.
Spotless lamb of God was he.
Full atonement.
Can it be?
Hallelujah, what a Savior.
Why did Bliss feel that way?
Why do we sing that with such joy?
Because hallelujah, what a Savior who fully accomplished the work of salvation.
We have to add nothing to his finished work.
Indeed, to seek to add some element to the work of the cross or to seek another way of
salvation around the cross is to pervert the gospel of Christ.
It is to proclaim or to seek a false gospel.
I know that there are people who say sincerely all religions lead to God.
All roads eventually lead to heaven, but that is not true.
There is but one road that leads to heaven.
There is but one way to God and that is the way that he provided in Jesus Christ who fully
accomplished at the cross the work of salvation.
The writer of Hebrews puts it so dramatically, doesn't he, when he writes these words.
By God's will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once
for all.
He, Christ, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand
of God, waiting from that time onward until his enemies be made his footstool for his
feet.
For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.
He could not make it more clear that one offering for all time was offered by Jesus Christ and
by that he fully accomplished the work of salvation.
You and I have to do nothing to add to that.
We could do nothing to add to it.
Christ has for sin atonement made.
What a wonderful Savior!
We are redeemed.
The price is paid.
What a wonderful Savior!
Then the third line of truth we see in that verse in John 17.
Not only was the work an assignment, but willingly accepted.
Not only was it a work fully accomplished, but it was a work which glorified God.
Jesus said, I glorified thee on the earth.
Notice that again is in the past tense.
He's praying as though the work were already done.
It's still hours away as he prays.
But he says, I glorified thee on the earth.
The work of salvation glorified God.
Why was that?
For at least a couple of reasons.
First of all, because it exposed the nature of God.
The cross reveals to us the holiness of God.
God demanding that price for sin, the death of his own son, the holiness of God.
But at the same time it reveals to us the love of God.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
All that may be known of God is fully revealed in Jesus Christ.
Not just in the miracles, not just in his words, but in the cross.
In that work of salvation.
But it glorified God not only because it exposed the nature of God, but because Jesus in so
dying obeyed the will of God.
The obedience of this one willing person, this man who was God, greatly honored and
glorified God.
He stands in contrast to the first man, to Adam, who disobeyed God.
But as the last Adam, he comes now and glorifies God by perfect obedience to the will of God
so that he suffered even the death of the cross.
You and I, by obeying the will of God, likewise glorify him.
The Apostle Paul put it this way in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 31, whether then you eat or drink
or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Just as our Savior obeyed the will of God and brought glory to him, so you and I are
to do the same.
God gives all of us a work to do.
Just as he gave the Savior a work to do, we can never do his work.
His work stands unique throughout the ages.
But God has a work for you to do, for me to do in the world.
Are you willing to accept yours as he was willing to accept his?
Are you willing to fully accomplish it, whatever the price may be?
Are you willing to seek to glorify God in his will, whatever that work is he's called
you to?
I tell you, it's that kind of commitment that this table calls us to.
For as we come to this table tonight, we are not only testifying of what Jesus did by his
sacrifice and the work of salvation, but we are testifying that we stand with our Savior,
committed to the will of God in our lives.
And we are saying to him, Father, God, whatever it is, whatever I must suffer for your sake,
by partaking of these elements, I am identifying with the Savior in his suffering.
And I desire to know him in the fellowship of his suffering and in the power of his resurrection.
As we partake of the elements tonight, remember that.
As you eat of this bread, as you drink of this cup, you are identifying with him in
his suffering.
But you are saying at the same time, Father, I am willing to suffer.
I am willing to do your will, to fully accomplish it, to accept it, to glorify you in it, just
as the Savior did.
Let's pray together.
Do you see the will of God that way?
Jesus didn't look upon the work the Father had given him as some unbearable, harsh thing,
but willingly accepted it.
He fully accomplished it.
He wanted to glorify the Father.
Is that your heart's desire tonight?
Is that the pulse of your life?
Oh, God, show me your will, whatever it is.
I believe it is, for many, many of you.
Father, I pray tonight as we partake of the communion elements that in partaking we will
remember this aspect of them, that we are identifying with the Savior and saying, as
he said, Father, not my will, but thine be done.
May that be true in our lives.
May we be willing to bear the suffering, to pay the cost, so that we can share in the
power of the resurrection.
In Jesus' name, amen.