1.  The Importance of Relationship

A.  Where was Jesus before He came to earth?

1.    Read John 17 (Text for lesson)

This is a direct prayer from Jesus to His Father.  He is in the garden.  The timing is right before He is to be taken into custody; soon, the trial and crucifixion will begin.

Jesus acknowledges His mission on earth and concludes that He has carried it out.  God has granted Him authority over all the people, that He might bring them into eternal life. All who will come.  Eternal life with the Father comes only through knowing and coming into relationship with Him through His Son, Jesus Christ.  

Now Jesus is thinking of who He was before leaving His Father’s side and coming to earth.  You see, before He came to earth, He was always at His Father’s side in that place where God abides.  We call it heaven.  Use your imagination for a minute and picture this …

The Father and Son working together during the time of Creation.  The Father and Son sitting together in the heavenly throne room, on their thrones.  See the Son at the right hand of The Father.  They are communicating and planning.  They fully trust each other. They are inseparable. Then, one sad day, one throne sits empty …  

Jesus' whole life has been about honoring His Father's wishes.  Working to bring about His Father's purposes, whether on earth or in Heaven.  This is the way He brings His Father Glory.  And His Father shares the glory with Him.  Oh how He now, in John 17:5, is missing those "Glory Hugs".  He pleads: 

“Father, glorify Me in Your Presence with the Glory I had with You before the world began.”

He knows it will still be a little while before that will be possible.  There is still something left that He must do first.  But Jesus is homesick and just wishing that it could all be over with, already.

Read John 1:1-3.  Who is The Word of which this passage speaks and what was He doing?  Who was He with?  We see that Jesus is known by other names as well. 

You may also read, Genesis 1:26.  Notice how God uses the word “us” in this passage.  Along with the above scriptures, you will see where Jesus was and what He was doing before He came down to earth to be with “us”.  Take note of John 1:14.

“The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.  We have seen His Glory, the Glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father full of Grace and Truth.”

Now we know why that second throne in heaven was empty.  The Son had a job to do and that included taking on human flesh. How did Jesus make it through His journey, from there to here and back again?  Where did his strength come from?  After all, now He was just a man, living under Adam’s curse.  What kept Him going to the very end?  One more question.  What was the hardest part?

Jesus was truly a human in every sense.  His physical body felt all the pain that He was subjected to.  Emotionally and mentally he was just like us.  The crown of thorns being thrust onto His brow, the beating he took and then the task of carrying His own cross (which, incidentally, was ours) up the hill to the place where it would be mounted for all to see.  Did He feel the discouragement?

Scripture tells us Jesus collapsed under the weight and had to have help.  His physical body took on unimaginable trauma.  His heart was pounding, broken.  His mental state was devastation.  But His spirit was strong and determined.  Why?  He had complete trust in His Father’s ability to facilitate the plan which they had agreed upon and to bring Him safely home on time.  Why?  Because of relationship.   

Jesus also had vision.  He knew the plan well and its timeline.  He and His Father had built it together.  Even though He was now a man, He knew even as a man what He had to go through to get it done.  The hardest part was not feeling the trauma and pain afflicted onto His physical body though.  It was the agony of being separated from His Father.  Relationship.  I think it can safely be said that, without that relationship, it wouldn’t have gone as well.    

When the sins of the entire world were thrust on Jesus, as He hung there suspended between heaven and earth, God the Father had to turn away from Him.  He was alone and cried out: 

“My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

This was the voice of a mortal man crying out for understanding even though, spiritually He was determined to see it through to the end.  He knew the plan.  He even knew what to expect.  He knew He had to keep going to get through it.  But it hurt so much … 

He had to finish what He had started.  He had to have complete faith in God that when the plan was complete, He could go home.  But why this terrible strategy?  Why did it have to be so painful?  So violent …

The Bible says, God hates sin.  That is why He could not look upon His own Son during that period of time.  Jesus was covered, saturated with the sins of the world, crying out in anguish. His Father, for the first time ever, was helpless, unable to protect or comfort Him.  These were restrictions they had placed on themselves.

“Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”Hebrews 9:22.

In the first law which God gave to Moses, God required animal sacrifices because He needed a way to demonstrate the severity of sin, the cost of rebellion, the death that sin brings, and the price that must be paid to be redeemed.

“But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.”  Galatian’s 4:4.

“He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.”  Isaiah 53:7”

“Knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. John 19:28-30

"It is finished" is the English translation of the Greek word Tetelestai, which was the last thing Jesus' said before dying on the cross. Tetelestai comes from the verb teleo, which means "to bring to an end, to complete, to accomplish." It's a crucial word because it signifies the successful end to a particular course of action. The word means more than just "I survived." It means "I did exactly what I set out to do."

Holy God and His Precious Son had lived up to their own Word.  Without the perfect Lamb of God shedding His own blood, there could have been no forgiveness of sins.  They put us first.  No wonder, when John the Baptist was baptizing in the river Jordan and saw Jesus coming, he cried out, “Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world!”  John 1:29 

Do you realize that the love God had for His Son and the love Jesus had for His Father could only be matched by the extravagant love they both had for you and me?  John 17:24-26 says:

“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world …”

Now, read Ephesians 1:4-

“For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.  In love He predestined us to be adopted as His Sons, through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the one He loves.  In Him we have redemption through His blood …”

Do I need to say anymore?  Ok, just one more thing.  Turn to Luke 4:1-8.  During the temptations of Jesus, Satan took Him to Jerusalem, to the highest point of the temple.

“If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” 

What the human part of Jesus had to hear was, here is your chance to show the people who you really are without all of the suffering.  They will believe that you are the Son of God when you jump off the pinnacle of the temple and God’s angels come to rescue you on the way down.  They will be flat on their faces worshipping you before your feet touch the ground.  That’s what you want, right?  But what was Jesus’ answer?

 “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”  Luke 4:12.  Yes, Jesus knew that He could have gone the easier route and canceled the traumatic, painful "cross event".  He chose not to though because He wasn’t looking for more power or someone to worship Him.  He had all the power He wanted with His Father.  He just wanted us to be with Him and His Father …  and without the shedding of His blood, the power of sin could not have been broken. 

In closing, God could not look on us either, until Jesus did what He did.  Sin separated us from God too.  He had to make a way to break it's power.  He loved us and wanted us to be together.  His first choice of animal sacrifice was temporary. That is history.  To think that anymore bloodshed or sacrifices are required would be an insult to Him. The sacrifice of His Son was mutually planned from the very beginning to cover it all.  Was there ever such a great love as this?

Many so called "gods" are dead and buried.  They made no claim of returning to life or having a plan to bring us all together again.  They were not willing to sacrifice a thing.  Some of these "gods" are still demanding blood.

Our God demanded blood and then provided the blood he demanded.  He provided it Himself.  And He did it for us, for relationship.  

When you are going through hard times, remember, you do not have to be alone.  Relationship matters.  Jesus couldn't see His Father either but He knew that He was there.

Jesus sent back the Holy Spirit after ascending to Heaven.  As a human,  The Son could only be one place at a time.  But the Holy Spirit is not limited by time, space or location.

Here's the best part though.  Remember the empty throne next to the Father?  It's filled again.  Imagine the celebration when the Word returned, triumphant.  "Glory Hugs" for everyone!

God bless us all and teach us what we need to know so that we can be a conscious part of what He is doing.  Like His Son, we pray:

"Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven …"